Laughter is Love, So Please Don't Cry
by Amaniachwen
Summary: In which TOKKA romance finally blossoms five-odd years after the final battle! Meanwhile, the KATAANG relationship takes a dive. And Hakoda has a girlfriend! All in all, a tragicomedy of romantic proportions! Final chapter REVISED! Epilogue UPLOADED!
1. Breaking the Habit

Chapter One

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Breaking the Habit

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Sokka was stewing. It just didn't sit well with him. Sure, it worked out for other people, but he didn't want it to have anything to do with his dad. It simply should not be happening.

He paced back and forth, dislodging and spraying great puffs of sand with each step. The beach was beautiful at this time of morning: the air crisp, the waves rolling but busy, the taste of the sea salty and bitter yet fresh. It would have been comforting to think of his home with the Southern Water Tribe—for despite the sad memories, he had many good ones as well—but Sokka refused the cheering effects of such thoughts. Things were not going according to plan, and it riled him. True, he did not have a set plan for his father's life, he hadn't figured out all the minutiae of his father's day-to-day assent into "oldness," but at no point was his dad supposed to go out and get a hot young girlfriend. And it wasn't that he didn't want his dad to date people—that was fine. He'd been without a wife for a decade now, and it was only fair he should be able to find someone and be happy. But a female Firebender half his age? It was just weird. It was just—

"Sokka! Where have you been? We said we'd all meet at the southern end of the peninsula, not the eastern!"

Katara's hair unexpectedly blew up into her face and open mouth as Appa began his quick descent. As they came closer, Sokka could see that all three of them—Katara, Aang, and Toph—had already assembled for their trip. Ignoring the display of his sister choking on a strand of hair, Sokka turned his attention to his two best friends. Aang's ever youthful face beamed down at him, and though Toph's clear eyes seemed to be looking at something three feet to his left, Sokka still knew the crafty smile playing across her lips was meant for him. He couldn't help but return a warm smile in greeting.

But he couldn't hold back a retort for Katara.

"Yeah, Katara, I'm sorry if my brain has been a bit scattered lately, what with our dad suddenly wanting all of us to meet him and his girlfriend back home for a 'special supper.'" He made quote makrs with his fingers, the sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Oh, Sokka," Katara began in her rational yet emotional voice as Sokka greeted Appa with an affectionate pat and climbed up to the others. "I don't like it as much as you do, but we have to respect Dad's wishes and his choices. If he's ready to move on after Mom"—her voice slightly caught in her throat—"then we need to accept that."

In his fever to argue this point, Sokka lost his seating and leaned heavily into Toph as Appa took flight once more. "Respect his choices? What are we supposed to respect about him dating someone who could practically be his daughter?! I don't care if he wishes he can, but can't he find someone his own age? And someone who's not a Firebender?"

"Sokka, her being a Firebender shouldn't even matter," Aang put in. "We're in a time of peace now, and we all need to learn to live together and respect one another."

Sokka grumbled something about "the Avatar _would_ say that," but his words soared along with the wind back over Appa's tail.

"Besides," Aang continued, "It's not like she was doing any of the fighting in the war anyway."

"Yeah!" cried Sokka self-righteously. "'Cuz she was still in diapers!"

"Oh, right," Toph recalled. "Yeah, because she's just four years older than you, and you were still in diapers then, too, right?"

Toph couldn't see his scowl, but she could practically feel his expression through the familiarity of years of friendship.

"My point is that she's just not right for him. He needs someone his own age, and so does she."

"Oh, what, you mean she needs someone about your age?" Katara interjected. "Really, Sokka, are you this upset about it because you like her?"

"No!" he shouted. "I might have liked her at one point—I mean, I did meet her first—but I just mean she should be with someone who isn't as old as dad. I mean, his back could give out in a year. Maybe even next week. He decided to go back home and settle down, and I'm telling you, he's no spring chicken anymore."

"I don't know about that," Toph mused. "He's still a pretty hot stud for a dad."

"Toph!" Katara and Sokka cried in united revulsion.

"How can you call our dad a hot stud?" Katara didn't want to think of her dad as hot or as a stud.

"And how can you even tell if he's hot or not?" Sokka added.

Toph wiggled her toes at him. "Trust me, I can tell," she said. "I feel bodies' vibrations. Clothes don't vibrate." She smirked.

Everyone suddenly felt very shy in their garments, heavily clad though they were as they continued to fly south. Sokka became very rigid and tried not to move a muscle.

"I've been practicing seeing with my feet a lot, Toph, and combining it with my Waterbending," Aang mentioned. "It really helps to know when to avoid this one Earthbender official who smells funny. This guy keeps trying to take me to plays and sports and things to show people he knows me. He's this really big guy, and when he approaches, I can see the vibrations of the sweat dripping down his body—"

"OH-kay, Aang, you can stop right there." Sokka suddenly felt ill.

The group sat in silence for a bit, and then Toph spoke.

"So your dad's invite said it would be okay to bring a date."

Her statement hung in the air.

"And either they have the ability to hover so I can't sense them, or it's just the four of us," she reasoned.

Still silence.

Aang glanced at Katara, whose face held no expression as it turned to look out over the ocean waves far beneath them.

Toph sighed. "So are you two still on this silly break thing of yours, or aren't you?"

"Sure are blunt," Sokka muttered.

"That's how I roll, babe," she replied. To Aang and Katara she continued, "Really, what's going on with you guys?"

"We're still on break," Aang told her. "Katara had some doubts she wanted to sort out, so we're just taking some time apart for now, but we'll be back together soon." Toph and Sokka could tell he was trying to sound confident, but he instead sounded as if he were repeating to them his mantra of the past two or three months or however long this so-called "break" had lasted.

"Aang…" Katara murmured.

"The break will be over soon," Aang said again.

Katara didn't say anything and continued to sit motionless, expressionless. But a slight darkening of her eyes suggested her turmoil of thoughts within.

"What about you two?" Aang changed the subject.

"Oh, me?" Toph asked. "I'm not seeing anyone really important right now. No one I'd want to drag to the South Pole anyway. That's a date challenge I only reserve for guys I really like. If they pass the Freeze Your Butt Off level, they might get to third base!" She chuckled at her joke.

Sokka didn't find it very funny, but he said nothing.

"And you, Sokka?" Aang asked.

Sokka really didn't want to have to admit this, but he knew they weren't going to leave him alone until he told them. He drew in a breath and said, "Oh, I just didn't…think you guys were bringing dates either, so I decided not to bring one to make you guys feel better about not having one, too." It all came out faster than he intended, as spur-of-the-moment lies usually do, and unfortunately, his friends saw right through this one.

"Still can't get a date, huh?" Toph said.

"I can get a date!" he defended. "I just didn't feel like one is all."

"Sokka, it's been two years since you and Suki broke up. Are you still not over it?" Katara asked gently.

"Oh, no! I'm over it!" he insisted. "She got tired of me and dumped me, but…but I was tired of her, too, and I feel better than I ever have. I love being single!" Something told him they didn't buy this either.

"Oh, Sokka, she didn't get tired of you. You two started dating so young, she just wants a chance to date other people so she can know if it's the right choice to be with you. Her breaking up with you might save you both from wasting time in a possibly doomed relationship when you could be out dating other people. It doesn't mean she doesn't care about you anymore."

"But if she loves him, why does she have to go out and date other guys to know it's real?" Aang suddenly said. "Why go through all that when she already told him she loved him and wanted to be with him?"

"Because she needs to know. She needs to know what's out there. You can't just expect her to date one person her entire life," Katara began heatedly.

"But she said she loved him, so how can she take that back? After everything?" Aang persisted, matching her intensity.

"People say stupid things, Aang!"

She had spun to face him. Tears hung in her azure eyes.

"Stupid?" Aang said the word as if for the first time, and his face suggested a bad taste that it left in his mouth. "Are all those years together 'stupid' to you?"

Katara turned her eyes downward.

"Let's not talk about this now," she said. "We're almost there."

Everyone knew they would not arrive at the Southern Tribe's village for another half hour, but they all welcomed the silence anyway.

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To be continued…

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A/N:

Woah! I haven't written a fanfic in forever, but that just proves how awesome Avatar is! This is a Kataang and Tokka fic, and I hope you, dear reader, will enjoy what I have in store for the bunch. I would very much appreciate your comments, and if you have any suggestions, I will definitely take them into consideration! : )

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P.S.

I don't own Avatar, but I am considering purchasing a Zuko/Sokka/Aang set for my own personal amusement. Heh heh heh 3


	2. When Igloos S'plode

Chapter 2

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When Igloos S'plode…Metaphorically

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After the rather tense flight, everyone did his/her best to put on a brave face for the early evening lunch party with Chief Hakoda and his girlfriend Mazane. Hakoda and his Little Love Lantern, as he called her (making her giggle and everyone else cringe) had prepared a combination Fire Tribe and Water Tribe cuisine, and everyone sat around the table eyeing the odd concoctions. They exchanged subtle glances, and all tacitly agreed that meat of molehare and toadwartstool were a heinous affront to anybody's palate.

"I'm sorry the meal is so meat-heavy, Aang, but Mazane remembered that you're vegetarian, so she made you a special dish," Hakoda explained with a warm smile in the woman's direction.

"Yes! I'll go get it!" she chirped good-naturedly. She was back in a moment and set before Aang a large bowl accompanied by a ladle so large and sturdy it looked capable of a respectable degree of Earthbending.

Aang peered into the bowl, doing his utmost to mask his repulsion. "Oh, it looks delicious!" he praised. "And there's so much of it! I've never had this much of…this ever in my life!" He honestly had no clue what it was, but he just as honestly appreciated Mazane's effort to provide a good meal for him.

"Those are ground and pulped sea-tubers from my home in the Fire Nation colonies. We have some unique produce, but what we're really known for is that all the produce grows really big in colonial soil. That's why I made you such a big bowl of it. Once the sea-tuber is cut, there's only a window of an hour before it begins making its poison seeds…"

She babbled on a bit, and the only person who seemed to be paying attention was Hakoda. Aang quietly twiddled his thumbs in his lap with his "polite face" on, an expression he had assumed as his default since becoming Savior of the World; Katara tried very hard to pay attention, but her mind kept wandering; Toph rubbed her feet together in an attempt to warm the flesh exposed at the bottom; and Sokka blinked his eyes strangely while watching himself in a mirror hanging on the wall across from him.

The conversation and dinner finally progressed, and all were pleased to discover the dinner was not as terrible as they expected, and early evening became late evening, and with the even colder temperatures, everyone found it appealing to huddle around the fire and sip a hot cup of fresh coffee and eat brownies.

"It's like we're adults and kids at the same time!" Mazane referred to the coffee and campfire-like huddling, laughing.

Sokka almost made a rude remark, but he suddenly felt Toph's frosted bare foot on his leg.

"Toph! Your feet are freezing! Get them off!" he said, jumping aside. Her feet followed, though, and remained firmly pressed to the outside of his thigh.

"But my feet are cold," she whimpered.

He didn't know how she could make puppy dog eyes like that since she didn't know what puppies looked like, but he sighed and gave in. "Fine, fine," he said, scooching back over to sit by her. "Here, give them to me." He took her feet in his hands and snuggled them into a pillow.

"Yes, I would like two cold dogs please," he said, mock-stoically. "Ha!" he burst out. "Get it? Cold dogs? Ha ha!"

Toph remained silent, though she tried to look scornful of his lame joke.

Sokka continued with the performance, though. "Gosh, it's so cold tonight, I think I'd rather have hot dogs for dinner! Yuk yuk yuk! Now I'll just cook these right up.—he shuffled the sides of the pillow, bouncing Toph's feet around—Ah, that should do it! I'll just test one to make sure it's done.—He tickled her foot. Toph squeaked.—Yes, yes, that sounds about right. Now, two great big hot dogs just for me!" And he chomped on her toes.

Toph shrieked, yanking back her feet and then instinctively kicking out at the biting source. One of her heels connected with Sokka's shoulder, and he reeled back, shocked, but still laughing from her reaction. Playing spectator to the two's sport, everyone else roared with laughter, and once Toph realized what had happened, she, too, erupted in laughter.

"Whose feet are you callin' 'great big hot dogs?'" she cried. "How many times have these feet saved your life, huh? These are Big Time Awesome Feet! Get it right, sir!"

Sokka scurried behind Aang and shook him by his shoulders. "Watch out, man! Those dogs' bite is worse than their bark!"

"Oh, ha ha," Toph put in sarcastically, but her mirth still shone all over her face.

But Sokka saw a faint blush buzzing across her cheeks as well, and it made him feel nervous…but also kind of proud.

When the laughter and chuckles died down, a calm settled into the group, and the conversation took turns this way and that, flowing as smoothly as a stream one minute, but changing as unexpectedly as the wind the next. After a comfortable lull, Hakoda spoke.

"What are wonderful, peaceful day," he said. "I always enjoy my time with all of you, my son and daughter and their closest friends." He nodded to each in turn. "Mazane and I really wanted today to be special, and it has been. And we have something we want to share with you."

"What is it, Dad?" Katara asked, but something in her voice indicated she had already guessed the answer. Sokka didn't like the trepidation he heard in it, but he waited silently for his father to go on.

"Mazane and I are going to have a baby."

Silence fell. And then it crashed.

"What?!" shouted Sokka. "Baby?! What?!"

"What?" cried Katara. "Dad, I thought you were going to announce your engagement or something? You—wha—?"

"Engagement?! What?!"

"Congratulations, sir," Aang managed as the Hakoda family exploded around him. Toph nodded along with Aang's kudos, but seemed to find this a moment requiring great tact on her part, and employing such, she found she couldn't think of anything proper to say.

"Congratulations?! What?!" Sokka had apparently lost his mind, but it was coming back to him as his father began with the explanations and the rationale of his actions.

What followed was a great argument of monumental proportions as had never occurred in the Hakoda family before. Aang went over to Toph and took her hand, and together they went outside into the cold night to wait until the storm blew over. Every time it died down, though, it picked back up again. The thick walls of the igloo muffled most of what was said or screamed, but they still heard some of the war raging within. Remarks flew back and forth, and what had at first been Katara and Sokka against their father had become a three-way battle.

"What was that before about respecting his choices, huh?!"

"What about Mom, Dad?"

"If you kids would just shut up and listen to reason!"

"I really love your father so much! Please don't be mad at him!"

Aang and Toph huddled together over the handful of fire blazing in the Avatar's hands. Aang couldn't tell how much time had passed—he knew that being cold made the passing of the minute hand seem to take hours—but he was growing tired of watching his Firebending glow in the ice-covered ground.

"I hope they're done screaming by the time the baby comes. It's not its fault," he grumbled, shivering.

"I can see why Sokka and Katara are mad," Toph said, "but I'm also jealous. They have a new baby brother or sister on the way. They're very lucky."

"Yeah," Aang said, suddenly struck by the thought now, too. "Yeah, they are."

They listened to the wind howling beneath the voices.

"Shall we go stay the night with Gran-Gran?" Toph suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds like a—"

Suddenly the door burst open, and the unexpected flash of the light from within the home stung Aang's eyes like a blast of lightning. He didn't see Sokka stalk past him at a brisk pace, but he heard the slip of his foot and Toph's sharp gasp, and then two bone-shattering cracks as Sokka landed hard on his back on the ice.

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To be continued…

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A/N:

Woah, so yeah. I wonder if this is as much of a cliffhanger for you guys as it is for me? 'Cuz I am sooo not a fan of bones cracking/breaking/making any kind of noise at all. It's a worrisome thing for me when I read it, but maybe it will affect you guys differently? Anyway, there's chapter 2, so do with it what you will. Reviews are ever appreciated and always motivating! : 3

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P.S.

I am starting a Donate to Amaniachwen's Purchasing of the Awesome Avatarness fund, so feel free to donate. ; )

Until then, I own nuthink. : (


	3. Losing You Again Part 1

Chapter Three

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Losing You Again—Part 1

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Five separate voices shouted Sokka's name at the same time, and the next few minutes were a complete blur to him. Someone held on to his hand, and he experimentally squeezed it, wondering to whom it belonged. It had the familiarity of déjà vu to it, though, and he was glad the hand never let go, even as he felt himself become weightless, and then he was warm again, and then all was dark.

--

He woke some time later to see a distorted shape looming over his leg. He instinctively jerked away and tried to grab for something—anything—that he could make a weapon.

"Sokka! Sokka, calm down!" Katara's voice. The shape was now at his side, soothing him and pulling him back to lie down on the bed. His eyes adjusted, and he saw Katara's features distinctly in what had been the distorted shape.

"I thought—" he began, but he stopped as he noticed all the colors on his leg. He looked back to Katara and mumbled something about his head hurting.

"Yeah, I know. You slipped on the ice and fell backwards really hard. You cracked your head pretty good and broke your leg pretty bad. How do you feel?" she asked with her motherly concern.

He blinked at her and nodded. "M'okay," he said. He was still trying to make sense of what had happened. His memories gradually came back to him, one at a time, quick like gun shots. Dad. Mazane. Baby. Angry. Yelled a lot. Yelled too much. Had to get out. Got out. Then blank.

"I remember what happened," he said once he had processed these things.

"Don't get mad again, Sokka. You need to rest now. I think you might have a concussion, but other than that and your leg, you're fine as long as you remain calm, okay?" she soothed, taking up her water healing again over his broken and bruised leg.

Sokka mumbled something else.

"Come again?" Katara asked gently.

"I fell down in front of Toph. That was so stupid. Why am I so stupid?" He looked to Katara, desperate for answers, reassurance, chiding, something.

"Sokka, she didn't laugh at you. You know she doesn't laugh at stuff like that if you're really hurt."

"No, that's worse. It's worse because it's even more embarrassing. Humiliating. Only an idiot would slip on the ice and break his leg. It's not like I've never lived in the South Pole before!"

"Don't get so worked up about it! Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone has accidents. You just got a broken bone and a bumped head instead of someone making jokes about you."

Sokka didn't say anything. He felt too much to know what it was he wanted to say first.

Katara concentrated on the healing process for a while, but then broke the silence, "Jeez, Sokka, you're lucky in some ways, but so unlucky in others. You're lucky you didn't crack your skull wide open, and you're lucky you didn't break your back or anything. But still. These injuries are the kind I can't just automatically fix. I've been working on your head and leg for at least an hour each, and they certainly look better, but brains and bones take a long time to heal. We're going to wrap your leg up, and you'll have to use crutches for a while. And your head doesn't have any major damage, but we're not sure yet what kind of concussion you have. You might have trouble remembering things…"

Sokka watched her lips move as she continued talking. He knew what happened when people incurred concussions. Headaches, of course, vision issues, difficulty balancing, vomiting, nausea, and a slew of other irritating after-effects. He didn't want to think about it. It was easier to ignore. It might even be easier to sleep…

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He woke again, this time suddenly and sharply. His leg had begun to throb, and a thin layer of sweat coated his body, making him even more uncomfortable. He pulled his sheets out from under and around him before settling again. The room was dark, and he guessed Katara had gone to bed a couple hours ago. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep again. Eventually the blackness of the room swallowed his consciousness, too.

--

Yelling.

Running.

Jumping.

Falling.

THUMP!

He scrambled to cover Toph with his body as fire and debris stormed around them.

Then they were up and running again.

He was her eyes. He had to be her eyes. He couldn't let anything happen to her.

Then jumping.

Then falling.

CRACK!!

More yelling.

Horrible pain.

"My leg!"

He heard Toph's voice from below him. Felt the weight of her entire body dangling from his left hand.

_To—Toph!!_

_Damn the leg!!_

"Hang on!" he told her.

Two Firebenders circled them like vultures. In a split second he chose to fight, if he could even call it a choice. It just happened. He just did it. And it worked, even though his space sword fell to the blazing earth below.

But then more warriors came; and now without any weapons or options or escape paths, he saw their doom so clearly before them.

_Please, God, don't let her see it._

She was slipping away from him.

_Damn the leg!_

He clutched at her hand with everything in him. His entire self pooled into that hand now. _Damn the leg!_ That hand meant Toph's life. Even though both their lives would soon be over.

"I don't think Boomerang is comin' back, Toph."

He didn't know how to say it but to just say it.

"It looks like this is the end."

He looked down at her over his shoulder, and blind or not, it felt to him like she was really looking into his eyes, too, for the first and last time. He wished he could wipe away her tears.

_God, let it be quick._

In the flash of a second, Sokka saw the choices before him.

What if it weren't quick, what would he do? Would it be better to drop her or to let her be captured and tortured and killed? Could he try to roll off the edge and fall with her? Could they fall to the very end together? Anything would be better than the roaring flames—the flames seemed too cruel a way to die.

_Damn the leg! Damn the leg!_

He just wanted to feel her hand in his. That was enough.

Loud crashing. Steel on steel. Chaos.

He couldn't feel her anymore.

--

"Toph! TOPH!!" he screamed, wrenching back and forth.

He was trapped. He was suffocating.

He was falling.

His leg hit, and he gasped at the sudden excruciating pain,

"Damn it! TOPH!!"

His eyes snapped open, taking in the dark of his room. In his mad writhing he had become entangled in his bed sheets, and then fallen out of bed. But something wasn't right. He had to see Toph. Toph! Where was Toph!

He fought with the blankets and finally freed himself. He struggled to pull himself up. Now he had to get his feet under him. And then where was the door in all this dark? Where was the goddamn door? He had to get out. He had to escape. His leg screamed at him to stop moving, but he ignored it.

_Damn the leg._

He stumbled to a wall and began feeling along it for the door. His hands groped at nothing but blank wall. He felt blind. Was he blind? If he were blind, how was he going to save Toph?

Finally, he found the door and was free! Pulling on the door offset his balance, though, and in order to steady himself he put weight on his broken leg. Oh, God, the leg—!

_But damn it! Damn it!_

He forced himself onward through the door, lurching and sweating, gritting his teeth together to keep from biting his tongue. His hand was still empty. Still empty…

"TOPH!!"

"Holy—Sokka, what the hell is wrong?!" Two strong arms encircled his body. Trapped! He was trapped! No, he had to help Toph get free first!

"No!! NOOO!! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! All of you! The whole Fire Nation! I'll burn _you_ to the ground! DON'T TOUCH HER!!" he raged, kicking and thrashing.

"Calm down, son, calm down. You're okay, you're okay. The war is over. Everyone's okay. It's okay." His father reassured him over and over, and gradually Sokka realized where he was, realized his surroundings, realized his father's presence, and his sister's, and Mazane's, too. He took in these things. He understood these things.

But he didn't understand himself.

"Dad…Dad, what's wrong with me?"

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To be continued…

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A/N:

Yaaaii, it got kind of darkly intense. But it has impact to it, so that's okay for now. Honestly, that scene from Sozin's Comet Part 4, it gets me right in every chamber of my heart 'cuz it's so powerful. I hope I was able to convey some of the darkness of that scene as I interpret it.

Jeez, I'm really glad they lived through it!

/cuddles the pair of them/ Anyone else want a cuddle turn?

Oh, and please leave a review! : )

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P.S.

The rule is "you break it, you buy it," right?

So I broke Sokka's leg.

Does that meanz I canz buyz him now?


	4. Losing You Again Part 2

Chapter Four

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Losing You Again—Part 2

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"What's wrong with him?" Aang and Toph asked. They had spent the night at Gran Gran's and had just learned the next morning what had happened while they slept.

"We're not sure. It could be any number of things, and it may very well be a combination of all of them." Hakoda spoke slowly and matter-of-factly. He knew from years of captainship how to convey troubling news to near-frantic warriors and crew. A good captain knew how and when to stay in control of himself, and by doing so he bolstered his authority and the men's confidence in him, which in turn influenced the men to stay as cool and collected as their captain.

Hakoda was pleased to see he still had this skill. Aang and Toph listened attentively as he explained the situation to them. "The concussion has affected him, of course, and it 's jostled his head quite a bit. He has periods of confusion, though he seems lucid even then. For the time being he isn't upset about the news I conveyed to all of you last night. He seems to be focusing more on things from our not-so-recent past. Last night he was fighting the Fire Nation and screaming for'—here Hakoda briefly hesitated, but quickly move on—'screaming some troubling things, and from the sounds and looks of it, he still has some war demons to wrestle with, which is completely natural for any warrior to go through after witnessing such violent and horrible things."

Hakoda stopped. He figured he did not have to explain this to Aang and Toph. He could tell by their silence that they both knew through their own experiences the kind of nightmares Sokka was fighting.

"Anyway," Hakoda continued, "I've already considered taking him to a hospital, but taking last night into account, I do not want him to travel. The boy has strength of mind and body, and he would be unruly on Appa or on boat. For now I want him to stay here and rest. Katara, Mazane, and I will take turns watching him and taking care of him, so you two are free to—"

"NO!" Aang and Toph shouted.

"—go," he finished, "even though I figured that would be your response." He chuckled. "Sokka is lucky to have such good friends. I'm sure it will make his recovery much easier on him with you two here. In fact—"

"I'll watch him for now," Toph interrupted. She clearly had no plans to hear a lecture, so Hakoda sent her into his home to see Sokka, in effect leaving Aang alone to learn what followed "in fact."

--

Afternoon arrived before Aang had a chance to speak with Katara. After Toph's time with Sokka, Katara had taken a turn, and following hers, Aang took one as well. Gran-Gran had prepared for and given her grandson a special tea with medicine to help him rest; and Sokka's body, taking the excuse to avoid stress from Sokka's disconnected and crazed thoughts, succumbed to the drugs and rested, which allowed everyone else a chance to rest as well.

"Aang, I'll watch him now," Mazane said as she quietly entered the room.

Aang smiled and nodded. He stood to leave, offering his seat beside Sokka's bed.

Before he closed the door on his way out, she turned to him, troubled. "Aang…"

"Yes?" Aang asked.

"Do you…do you think Sokka will be upset if…if he wakes up and sees me here?" She looked away in shame. "I couldn't ask Hakoda…"

Aang had wondered the same thing himself, but he smiled sincerely for her. "Even if he is, he won't stay mad. It'll mean something to him that you care." And with that he left.

--

After a quick chat with Toph, he found Katara fishing over the next hill. She'd made a hole in the ice and was Waterbending out large globules of water with fish still swimming circles in them.

"That looks fun!" Aang said. "I want to try!"

Katara blushed, but nodded and stepped back.

Aang bent over the hole in the ice and put his hands to the surface of the water. He used his new Waterbending technique to feel what was in the water.

"Water is alive," Aang murmured. "It's always moving. I can feel every current and every animal and fish. There are tons of fish down there, and a walrus and some penguins, too. And if I really concentrate…'—he said nothing for a few moments—'I can feel things too small to see with human eyes."

"That's amazing, Aang," Katara breathed. "I never thought that kind of Waterbending was possible."

Aang did not respond. As Katara had done, he began to Waterbend out a big balloon of cold, salty liquid; but unlike hers, his teemed with large thrashing fish.

"Woah, feisty!" he cried, leaping back from the hole. As Aang tried to keep the fish under control, the balloon swelled uncontrollably, bringing more fish with it.

"Aang, put it out! Put it out!" Katara cried, scrambling away from the sprays of freezing arctic water.

"I'm trying, Katara! I'm—wah!" A particularly big fish lunged furiously against the barrier of water and came flying out of it toward the Avatar. It hit the ground flailing, and sharp fins and tail danced dangerously in front of Aang's eyes as he tried to keep Katara and himself safe, and the other fish from escaping.

"Katara, get back!" he shouted. This Waterbending exercise took his full concentration, and he still needed more practice with it—the current situation was overwhelming. He needed to break his concentration; and with a quick inhale of breath, he disconnected himself from all the water and life within it. A split second later he used Airbending to blow the water and all the fish away from both him and Katara. With the blast of wind, the water and fish froze instantly to the side of the hill opposite Aang, and the Avatar breathed a sigh of relief to have the problem resolved, near-disastrously or not.

"Aang! Look what you've done!" Katara yelled at him.

Aang blushed in embarrassment, but felt better when he heard Katara break up into laughter. He laughed, too, and followed her when she said, "Come on, we can take those fish back to the village. That's more than enough to feed everyone twice."

They worked together to unfreeze the fish, setting free a great many of them for fear of excessive fishing, and then Aang used Airbending to pick the rest up to take back to the tribe. Even though it would freeze over soon, Katara closed the ice hole securely, just in case.

"You always know how to make me laugh, Aang," Katara said as they climbed the hill.

"And you always know how to make me feel better when I've messed up," Aang returned. "So why do you have doubts about us?"

"Aang," she sighed. "You know I care about you. So much. But I can't say you're the one and only for me if I haven't known anyone else."

"You know plenty of people," Aang protested.

"That's not what I mean, and you know it," she said sharply. "I need some space, Aang, and I need you to understand that."

"Katara, you said you wanted to have a break from us. I didn't understand that, but I accepted it. It really hurt, but I went along with it out for three months and let you do whatever it was you needed to do. Now I want to know: why are we still not together?" They had stopped walking, and Aang stared fiercely into her eyes.

"Because, Aang…" She hated to hurt him. God, she could barely breathe. "I just…I need more time."

"_Why_ do you need more time?" he shouted. "Why are you always doing this? Running away from me? You've always been there for me as a friend, but you keep giving me your heart and then taking it away! I'm not going to wait around forever for you to make up your damn mind!"

"Then don't," she said.

"What?" He hadn't expected her to say that.

"Fine, Aang, I'll end our break."

She was angry with him and miserable with herself at the same time, but she was resolute now. Her tone terrified him, and he waited with bated breath for her to continue.

"Aang, I have to break up with you."

--

To be continued…

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A/N:

Aaaww, heartbroken Aang. ( ; . ; ) It's sad, but dramatic, which kind of makes it fun.

/ducks the icicle fish Aang flings at her/

All in the name of advancing the plot along. Sheesh.

But, yeah, more Tokka goodness to come. I just figured Sokka needed a bit of a rest after the previous chapter. ; ) Please leave a review!

--

P.S.

Avatar is not mine, blah yada blah.

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R/R/R (Reader Review Responses)!!

Tokka Fun: Thank you so much for your enthusiasm! Something tells me you squee at the same Tokka moments throughout Avatar that I do! ; )

lulu and Smitti: Thank you so much for your "in character" comments! Honestly, half the time it takes me to write each chapter is spent trying to figure out how the characters should/would act and what they should/would say, so I'm so pleased you noticed and commented! Oh, and Smitti, if you break Sokka's other leg and claim it as your own, then you _would_ have joint ownership! Ownership of a joint! Get it? _Ownership_ of a _leg joint_! Hahaha! Heh heh Yeah, it was bad, huh?

Stormic09: I went on! Twice! :D

Winnie Beatles: Long Live Tokka Week!! For Forever!! (That might interfere with the official Aug. 7th deadline, but it will live on in our hearts, though!)

Demonking101: I sent you an FF message, but to say it again, yes, this is a Tokka heavy story. ; )

Picture: Are you a Hakoda fan? I wasn't a huge one when I started, but I'm kinda likin' him better and better as I continue using him. ; )


	5. And Back To You, Bob!

Chapter Five

--

And Back to You, Bob!

--

--

Sokka slept through the next two days. Everyone still took shifts sitting with him and watching him, but Toph practically lived in the room with him. She had been so worried about him, but now she didn't know how she felt. It seemed stupid, she told herself, that she was actually angry at him for not being awake yet. Two whole days? It had been even more hours than that! If there were twenty-four hours in a day, she reasoned, then he had been asleep for over forty-eight hours. So he could have been unconscious for fifty hours, or sixty hours. Maybe even a billion!

"Jeez, Sokka," she complained. She had taken to talking to him while she stayed with him. It was just too weird to sit there with him and not have anything to say. "Either Gran Gran was actually trying to put you in a coma with that herbal magic voodoo drink, or you're just milking this for all its worth. You can't really be this lazy in life, can you? You're missing entire days of your life here! _I'm_ missing entire days of my life! If you woke up, at least so we could waste entire days of our life together!"

She clamped her mouth shut in an instant, as if she'd been caught.

"That didn't come out right!" she said. "Why would I want to waste any day with you? Ah! I didn't mean that the way it sounded either!"

She turned her face away from him, even though she knew he couldn't see her red-tinged cheeks. She chided herself for acting childish.

"But, Sokka, you're so dumb," she sighed.

Her chair was turned backwards, and she sat in it, facing Sokka, laying her head along the top of the back of the chair. Holding her breath, she listened to his inhales and exhales, and then tried to match her breathing to his. It made her feel close to him, as if she were a part of him, and over the many hours she had sat with his inert body and unconscious mind, it seemed the only way to really _be_ with him when he was otherwise not even really there.

He really was a pain…

--

"Honey, why is he not awake yet? Aren't you worried? How serious is this, really? I—"

Hakoda cut Mazane's worrying off with a kiss.

"He'll be fine. He's a tough warrior, but inside he's a gentle boy. Man now, really. He has some things he needs to work through. All he needs to do that is some time." With one hand he massaged the back of her neck, and his other hand he placed on her stomach. "But thank you for worrying. You're going to be a wonderful mother."

"Do you really think so?" she smiled. "And do you know that I hope our child has your eyes."

"But your brown ones intoxicate me," he said, grinning at her and raising a suggestive eyebrow.

"Where do you get those lines? Ugh, loser!" she teased, playfully pushing his shoulder away.

"What can I say? You know you put the beast in me."

Mazane laughed. "You sound ridiculous!" she said. "I kind of love it."

"I love you," Hakoda said, seriously now. "Sokka will love you, too, and so will Katara. They don't want me to replace their mom. I know that. But I also know I never could do that. You're not a replacement for anyone, Mazane. You're the woman I fell in love with when I never thought I could love again."

Mazane took his hand in hers and put it back on her stomach. She held it there with her own and closed her eyes. Hakoda looked at her lovingly, and then he closed his eyes, too, and together they felt the place where the bond between them had taken living form.

--

"Gran Gran, I think he hates me. God, I never meant to hurt him, but I had to do it! I felt, oh, I just felt frozen in the relationship. As if I were frozen in ice! I mean, I know he's told me he's love me ever since he came out of the iceberg, so I guess I was, like, his anti-freeze of love or whatever, and I really did love him, and yes, I still do, but it's different now! I am nineteen-years-old, Gran Gran, and I can't just date one guy for my entire life! How will I know Aangs 'The One' if I've only been with him? I can't! That's it! But he doesn't get that! He's so sure of himself, but sometimes—sometimes I'm _not_, Gran Gran!"

She quelled her whirlwind of venting, staring helplessly at her nonchalant grandmother sitting on the floor across from her and peeling potatoes for dinner.

The elderly woman lifted her head and looked to her granddaughter.

"Why don't you help me with these potatoes, dear."

"Gran Gran! I have a real, honest-to-goodness problem! I've broken a young man's heart!" Katara cried, insistently dropping forward onto her hands and knees.

"Yes, but don't break his belly now, too, dear. If you don't help me peel these potatoes, dinner's going to be late," Gran Gran said coolly.

Katara picked up a potato and used water from a puddle of melted snow near the door to cut off the skin of the tuber. She wasn't really paying attention, though, and the potato ended up in tatters.

"Why don't you try using the peeler instead for now, dear." She handed Katara another potato and passed her the peeler she had been using, opting not to hand Katara the small knife she now used to cut away the skins.

Even though her dilemma went unmentioned, Katara knew her grandmother was on her side. "Her silence is really just her confidence in me that I'll figure it out for myself," she realized. "Oh, Aang, I'm not saying 'no.' I'm just saying 'not yet.'"

In her sudden irritation with herself, she accidentally skidded the peeler off the potato and across a knuckle. Wincing, she thought, "Why didn't I say it that way earlier?"

She tied a bit of cloth around the open skin, and then had an idea. "I'll just tell him that! He needs to hear that from me, right?"

She sped through the rest of the spuds—potato tresses (and some chunks) flew everywhere—and then rushed out of the house, leaving Gran Gran behind in a startled stupor.

"Aang!" she called when she found him playing ball with the tribe's kids. "Aang, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Aang Airbended the ball back to the kids and told them he would be right back. They walked far enough away so that their conversation could be kept private.

"What do you want, Katara?" Aang asked, not unfriendly, but with a decided lack of interest.

"Aang, I know we've talked about this already, and I know you don't really understand my feelings about this and what I mean when I say I want to take a break or to break up, and that's okay, though I really do wish you would understand, so I want to put it simply, not bluntly and meanly, but just simply, so you know how I feel and where I stand, and—"

"What is it, Katara?" It disconcerted her how he seemed so detached, even though he was staring right at her.

"Aang, I never meant to tell you 'no.' I just mean 'not yet.'"

Aang continued to look at her, and she felt vulnerable under such a harsh gaze from one for whom she cared so much.

"Well?" she tried.

"What do you want me to say, Katara?" he asked. "That hearing that makes me feel better? I'm tired of you making me jump through hoops just to be with you, or even for just the _promise_ of being with you. I'm not some poodlerabbit, Katara."—He didn't even crack a smile.—"You told me you wanted to break up, so we broke up. We're broken up."—She winced at his words.—"And that means we're done."

"Aang, I—"

"We're done," he repeated. "You take all the time you need, date all the guys you want. Date Haru for all I care. Maybe someday we can be friends again," he paused and his eyes hardened, "but not yet."

Katara's throat tightened, and the tears welling in her eyes began to fall.

"You didn't have to be a JERK about it!" she shouted and hurried off before she really broke down crying.

Aang almost called after her, but restrained himself. "You had to do what's best for you," he thought, "so now I have to do what's best for me."

--

Toph's eyes blinked open. She had fallen asleep while breathing with Sokka, but something has awakened her. A grunt. Sokka?

She jumped off the chair and darted to his side. "Sokka!" she cried. "Sokka, can you hear me?"

--

The fog he had been in for what seemed a lifetime was clearing.

Someone was calling him.

A voice he knew well.

A voice he had been searching for through the fog.

He opened his eyes and saw her leaning protectively over him, heard the anxious fear in her voice.

He reached up and pulled her to him in a tight hug.

"Toph."

--

She had never heard him speak her name that way before. It scared her even more than the fact that he was hugging her like she was the first and last person in the world he ever wanted to hug.

It scared her because it gave her the kind of hope he had unwittingly crushed before. She had to stop this.

And then he kissed her.

Awkwardly. Somewhere next to her ear. Far upper part of her check maybe.

It startled her into action.

"Get—get off me!" she stammered, tearing herself from his tempting embrace. "And get a hold of yourself. Jeez, I know you haven't eaten in, like, three days, but that doesn't mean you can turn cannibal!"

"What? Toph, I—" But a thick wave of anger blew over him as she huffily wiped at her face and brushed herself off. "I'm just glad you're okay," he said.

Startled, she stopped her nervous tidying and turned back to face him. "Wh—why are you saying that?" she snapped, trying to hide her embarrassment.

She felt him flinch at her tone.

Then with gentleness, she said, "That's what I'm supposed to say."

She felt him relax.

"You really scared me," she admitted.

"And everyone else!"—amended.

"Me the least!"—blurted.

Now she could feel his confusion, but even more intensely, her own mortification.

"I'll go get you a sandwich," she said more loudly than she intended, and with that she fled from the room, leaving Sokka utterly baffled behind her.

She was thoroughly shaken up and a bit angry, but part of her couldn't help but crow exultantly over what had happened, "I don't know what that part of the face is called, but it _deserves_ a name!"

--

To be continued…

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A/N:

I hope this was as much of an "aaaw" chapter for you guys to read as it was for me to write! Man, I love these characters! I wish they were mine, but…

…these characters are not mine. : (

Well, except Mazane, I guess. : )

And, uh, the embryo in her belly. But who's counting? : /


	6. Delayed Exposition

Chapter 6

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In Which Exposition is Finally Provided and Part 2 to the Story is Introduced

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--

Toph had been correct not too hold onto hope, though she secretly had, but would not admit it to herself.

Sokka had slept long and soundly, but symptoms of his concussion appeared, namely memory-loss of events following his fall. By the time Toph had told everyone Sokka was awake and returned with his sandwich, Sokka had forgotten he had even spoken with her. He'd simply grabbed for the sandwich and thanked her with a wondering remark about how could she have known he was starving. Toph had bitten back an angry cry and remained speechless while the others asked Sokka a series of questions to gauge how he was recovering.

It had been a month since then, and in that time Aang and Toph and Katara had returned to their separate lives while Sokka stayed with his dad and Mazane while his leg healed. Aang and Toph were both for the time settled in the Fire Nation, though they lived and worked in separate regions. Because of the hard work of Lord Zuko and his various officials, the Fire Nation was no longer considered a threat by the other nations for the most part. Minor problems yet arose from time to time, but fortunately, they had declined dramatically over the years.

In the era of peace he had helped create as the Avatar, Aang now worked as the last Airbender to rebuild his people's realms. The Fire Nation had assumed it had wiped out all the Air Nomads, but this was not the case. Some had survived and had been in hiding for the past hundred years, and still others had immigrated to the Earth Kingdom, living there as non-benders, keeping their skills secret. Aang needed to base himself in the Fire Nation for diplomatic reasons. Keeping relations between the Fire Nation and the Air Nomads peaceful was increasingly important as more and more Airbending peoples (and even those who suspected Air Nomads in their ancestry) came forward seeking—and at time even demanding—remunerations for losses sustained over the past century because of the Fire Nation's tyranny. Aang's job was by no means a small one, and it left him stressed and tired at the end of every day, even though he was passionate to reestablish the home of his childhood in honor of his long past friends and mentors.

Whereas Aang's life held great purpose for himself and others, Toph's was more carefree and pleasantly happy. She lived in the Fire Nation simply because it was far from her parents and their ongoing dream to turn her into a lady. Discussions, arguments, and angry Earthbending demonstrations changed neither their outlook nor Toph's outlook, and Toph had found it easier to love her parents by being as far away from them as possible. She spent her days doing entertainment gigs dueling other Benders. It was a form of legal gambling for attendees of the matches, and Toph considered it a dream job. She won most of her fights, and when she did, not only was she paid, but so were some other lucky people with the brains to bet on her for the win.

The only area in which she felt her life lacking was the Friend Department, as she called it. Without Aang, Katara, and Sokka around all the time, she found she grew very lonely very quickly. To remedy the situation, she had been going out and socializing more, which had been difficult for her to do at first—she had met some real morons!—but gradually she had made friends at different clubs and bars, which she attended on her nights off from work. Sometimes a nice and/or interesting guy would ask her out, and she usually consented and made plans to meet them at another time and place. She enjoyed these friendships and casual relationships because they were convenient; she could go to them when she needed company and leave when she got bored. They were all good people, but they were a sad substitute for the camaraderie she had shared with her best friends. Still, she did see Aang at least once a week, and Katara and Sokka once every two weeks when Katara and Aang were still together, though things were different now.

Katara lived in the Northern Water Tribe working with increasing satisfaction alongside her own mentor Master Pakku as a Waterbending teacher. Sokka had moved up there as well when he had grown tired of instructing the half-adopted students of his sword master. Master Piandao basically took on pupils he thought worthy of learning swordsmanship, but with whom he also did not want to deal or manage. He was growing old, he had said, and putting student after student through drill after drill took too much out of him. So he said. That was until Sokka had discovered he was shirking his duties as a master swordsman by devoting all his time to entertaining a mistress, as Sokka put it, though Piandao consented she was more like a "glamorized girlfriend." Since teaching was not his passion anyway, Sokka decided to quit working for Piandao and doing said master's job, and they parted ways, though on surprisingly good terms (Sokka couldn't help but laugh at the lady's man he never knew his master was). He had then moved up to the Northern Water Tribe to work for Princess Yue's parents, who were still grateful for his and Aang's help from years before.

Before Aang and Katara's "break," as the two called it, Katara and Sokka had made biweekly trips, Aang picking them up and taking them back on Appa. All four of them would meet in restaurants downtown and then stay up till dawn wandering the town together or dancing at clubs before they all crashed at Toph's place to sleep off the night.

Toph really wished Aang and Katara were still together. It made her life more fun when they were because then Katara and Sokka would visit; and aside from that, as a couple/unit/romantic-duo-team/whatever they provided hope for her, hope that childhood friends really can fall in love.

Toph felt herself going in the direction of thinking too much, and the kind of thinking too much that led to making herself miserable, so she decided to change clothes and go out to Volcano, her favorite bar, which was well-known as a mecca for Earthbender travelers and emigrants within the Fire Nation. She hoped an evening out would do something good for her mood.

Even though it hadn't worked any other night for a month.

"Damn you, Sokka…"

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

So here we are at chapter 6, and I finally clue you all into where the Gaang and their lives are. Better late than never, right? There is more action to come, of course, so I hope you enjoyed this little breather of tonsofinformationtakeitallinandchokeitdown and are ready for the oncoming chapter 7…

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P.S.

Avatar belongs not to me. Not to me. Not to me. Not to me. Oh, sigh.

--

To the reviewers:

Demonking101-- Dude, sorry for teasing you like that. lol I'll be updating regularly over the next few days, so I hope you check back and let me know what you think! : )

PandoraNC-- I'm glad you're enjoying the Kataang! Aang having backbone actually really helps me to move my story along in the direction I mean for it to go! Besides, it's time he manned up! ; )

destinygirl-- Yeah, I see what you mean with Katara and the ending at all. I like her as a character, and I prefer to see her doubts as a result of her giving in to peer pressure then, rather than seeing her as just a bitch or something. lol

Lord Sneeze-- Glad you were surprised! ; )

8675309-- Relationship shrapnel? Now there's a deadly weapon!


	7. Getting Kicked Out of the Nest

Chapter Seven

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Getting Kicked Out of the Nest

--

--

"Daaad."

Hakoda cringed.

"Daaaad, I'm huuungry!"

"Then why don't you get some _food_!" Hakoda hollered back.

"My leg huuuurts!" Hakoda snapped the ink brush in his hand.

"The nerve of that kid!" he started, but Mazane waved it off as she stood from the table.

"It's fine," she said. "I'll make him some breakfast."

"Breakfast! It's half past noon! And he should be making it himself! His leg's fine!" Hakoda ranted.

"Oh, don't mind him. He needs his rest, and besides, I like doing things for him. I think he's starting to like me." She used Firebending to heat up the bottom of a cooking pan.

"Mazane, he's taking advantage of you! And he's taking advantage of me! Before his accident he said some terrible things to the both of us, but then he got hurt, and since then we've been babying him! And he needed it for a little while, but he has been completely unreasonable ever since he sent you out looking for arctic cherries to make Breakfast Cherry Muff-muffs for him!"

"But, sweetie, I thought you liked my muffins?" Mazane quipped saucily as she tossed a fish and a splash of oil into the pan.

Hakoda ignored her comment for the time being (though it wasn't bad, and he locked it away for later use) and continued, "Sokka is my eldest child. He's my son! And he's behaving like a little boy! I've made up my mind, Mazane. He leaves the house today."

Mazane quelled her Firebending and put the pan down. "But his leg's still healing," she protested. "Katara has her job to focus on, she can't take care of him. If he can't turn to you, who can he turn to?"

"He can turn to himself. He's a man now. He has been for a long time. He'll be okay," Hakoda said in good faith.

"I will miss having him around the house. I watch him, and I feel like I'm seeing you and what you were like when you were his age," Mazane mused.

"You make it sound so long ago," Hakoda sulked.

"To me it was," Mazane said simply. "I mean, I'm only five-and-a-half years older than Sokka. If you had started having kids as a teenager, then—"

"I like your muffins!" Hakoda exclaimed.

The suddenness of his outburst startled her, but she appreciated the humor of it and began laughing. "Oh, now I've lost my train of thought!"

"Oh, no," Hakoda feigned sympathy, and as she turned back to Sokka's Final Casa de Hakoda Fish Frenzy Breakfast (onions, no daisypepper), Hakoda enjoyed a triumphant smirk.

"One good thing about being my age," he thought, "is wisdom with the ladies!"

--

--

Sokka found out over his breakfast-in-bed tray that his father wanted him out of the house by the end of the day.

"And no going over to Gran Gran's instead," his father prohibited.

"But, Daaaaaaaaad!" Sokka's jaw dropped in dismay.

"No buts, Sokka. You can get around on that leg just fine if you would use it. There's a ship leaving for the Earth Kingdom later this evening—I've made arrangements for you to go with them."

Sokka's arguments and protestations proved futile, not only with his father, but with himself as well. He knew it was well past time for him to go.

But still.

He had been so very comfortable here!

"But, Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!" he bawled, clutching his father's leg as he tried to exit the room.

"Let go, Son! Let go!" Sokka's grip fierce, Hakoda dragged him from one end of the house to the other before he could free himself. As soon as he did, he ran for his bedroom door, and before slamming it shut, shouted, "Get packing!"

--

--

"Oh, man," Sokka grumbled, shoving his belongings into his bag. "No more sleeping in. No more home-cooked meals. Really tasty not-camping-food meals." He salivated even now at the thought of his breakfast an hour ago.

"This sucks," he grumbled on to himself. Once in a pocket of comfort, he fell into a rut; and once in that rut, it took life-or-death situations (or Fatal Fury of the Father) to spur him to action. "But given some time, I would have—" he began, but a sudden gust of air through his open doorway shocked him into silence.

"Sokka! Sokka, I need your help!" Aang cried, following his Airbending and rushing into the room.

"Aang? What are you doing here?" Sokka could barely believe the situation. Aang abruptly showing up in the Southern Water Tribe in his bedroom? What in the Avatar was going on?

"I'm going crazy here. I've been trying to move on from Katara because what am I supposed to do? Waste away? I'm 117-years-old! I'm in the prime of my life, aren't I? If she's so bent on dating people, then maybe I should date people, too, right? So I've been trying! And you'd think the Avatar would be able to find a date pretty quick, right? Wrong! It's hard! Every date I go on a date the girl stares at me like I'm a god, and I'm not, so that makes it weird, and then she follows me home and does something _really_ weird, like singing outside my bedroom window till dawn or getting the landlady to let her in, so she can sneak into my apartment and make me breakfast! One girl even did my laundry! Insane! They're all crazy! Girls are crazy, Sokka! Absolutely crazy!!" Gesturing wildly throughout his spiel, Aang worked himself to a sustained level of shouting by the end of it, at which point he wheeled around, facing Sokka with an expression contorted by the horror of his recent realization.

"You done?" Sokka asked.

"Oh, Sokka, I wish I were," Aang lamented, dropping into a chair he simultaneously pulled over with his Airbending. "Katara's the one for me, but she's so determined to doubt I'm the one for her. I just want to be happy, Sokka. Happy and with the woman I love."

"Don't we all, Aang, don't we all," Sokka sighed, clapping his friend on the shoulder.

The life suddenly came back to Aang, and he grabbed Sokka's hand. "Come back with me to the Fire Nation! Help me find a girlfriend! Maybe if Katara sees me with somebody else, she'll get mad with jealousy and come running back to me!"

"Yeah, I don't know if that's how Katara rolls…" Sokka pointed out, not returning Aang's grasp.

"It'll work! I know it will!" Aang said fiercely. Then softly, "It has to."

Sokka inwardly commiserated with Aang's pain. He had known such heartbreak when things hadn't worked out between him and Suki, and he hated to admit it and he tried not to think about it, but he still felt the scars of that break-up. "Hell, I haven't had a real girlfriend since," he realized. "And it's probably time I moved on."

"If I go with you…" he began slowly, "I ask two conditions." He held up two fingers.

"What are they? Yes! Yes, whatever they are!" Aang promised.

Finger one. "House me." Finger two. "Feed me." Finger three. "Let me sleep in as late as I want." Afterthought. "Oh, and can I have Momo?"

"Okay, okay, okay, and no! C'mon, let's go! I read about a single's bar on an island off the Fire Nation's mainland. If we leave now, we can make it there thirty minutes before it closes!"

Packing was done and farewells were made very quickly, and before Sokka knew it, he was in the air with Aang and Appa. The wind whistled through his bed-head of the last month, and he stretched out his arms and felt exhilarated, as if an electric charge of life surged through his very veins. "And I'm still in the rut!" he crowed. "Too bad your kicking me out didn't work, Dad! Bwahahahaha!"

Victory was undeniably sweet for the time being, but Sokka (as per his usual) had no idea what he was getting into by tempting fate.

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

I heart Sokka. 'Nuff said. And Aang is too cute for words.

Romantic highjinks to come, so please leave a review until then! :D

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P.S.

If I owned Avatar, it would be mine by now.


	8. Make Love, Not War

Chapter Eight

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Make Love, Not War

--

--

"Okay, here's the plan," Sokka whispered. "I'm going to move in. Swiftly. Forcefully. Now, what you're going to do, just as I'm going in for a messy kill, you come swooping"—he made a swooping movement with his entire body to emphasize this part—"down to rescue her for the win!"

Aang nodded vehemently. "Roger that, captain!"

"We'll meet back in this spot in oh-500 hours," Sokka continued. "Or at least, sometime before the bar closes. Maybe earlier if you mess up and she rejects you."

Aang's face fell. "Sokka, don't tell me stuff like that just before a mission!"

"I'm sorry, Aang, but you've got to face reality. It can be a harsh, harsh world out there." Sokka bowed his head.

He took a moment to inhale and exhale, bracing himself. "I'm going in!"

Aang watched with bated breath as Sokka stealthily made his way down along to the far end of the counter. (At least, he would have been stealthy if his bound-up leg did not emit a heavy 'thump' every other step.) When he had come up beside the target, a pretty girl in an Advanced Firebending Academy uniform, he said something to her in an exaggerated manner (as far as Aang could tell), and the girl rolled her eyes.

Sokka had made contact.

Bravely, Sokka pressed on, leaning into the target as he made another comment. Her vision now obscured by his intrusively close face, Sokka gave Aang the signal for the sneak attack: he flapped his arm violently at him from across the room.

To distract the target from Aang's answering duckotter call, he slipped back from her, grabbing Target's drink from her grasp. Taking the little pink paper umbrella propped in her glass and capturing her eyes with his, he seductively, outrageously ran the end of the toothpick along his bottom lip. Target's upper lip curled.

As Aang approached, Sokka invasively slanted forward into her again, now twirling the umbrella between her lips and his as he no doubt whispered some cheesy romantic line to her.

Aang felt a rush of gratitude. "Sokka, you're amazing! No one else cold set it up so well."

But then…

"I am _NOT_ your forever girl!" Target shouted, grabbing back her drink and the little pink paper umbrella and shoving the latter up Sokka's nostril, all in a single fluid movement.

"_Abort! Abort!_" Sokka wailed, turning and running as the Former Target's Firebending scorched the barstool at which he had been seated so unwelcomely.

Aang and Sokka hightailed it out of the bar and into the hot summer night.

"Sorry, Aang," Sokka panted, clogging his unobstructed nostril with his thumb and attempting to blow the paper umbrella out the other. "Mission: Bait and Switch failed. Disastrously."

"Maybe we need to try another tactic?" Aang considered. "We've been at these schemes for a week, and nothing really seems to be working."

"What about that one girl? The one with the clackity-clacker?"

"Sokka, it's called a walker, and she was just an old lady I helped across the street!"

"Yeah, but she gave you her number, didn't she?"

"Because she wanted me to buy her groceries for her sometime! And besides, I might _be _117-years-old, but I don't want to _date_ someone 117-years-old!"—Shuddering, Aang was simultaneously horrified and disgusted.

"Hey, a date's a date," Sokka shrugged.

"_No_," Aang said flatly.

He dropped to the ground, cross-legged, and began to think.

"Aang, are you meditating?" Sokka asked, leaning against a streetlight.

"No, just thinking," Aang replied. "And I think there's something we're missing…?

"Like what?" Sokka asked, picking something out of his ear, examining it, then flicking it away.

"Well, dating involves two people, right? And it's important in consulting with another party to know that party's state of mind. How they think, what they're looking for, those sorts of things, right?"

"That makes sense," Sokka agreed.

"So far it's only been the two of us trying to force communication, but I think what we need to do is find common ground and meet on peaceful terms! No more scheming, no more invasions!"

Aang leapt airily to his feet. "That's it! Sokka, we need Toph!"

"Come again?"

"Toph can be our Ambassador to The Minds of Women! She can tell us how to approach girls, how to act around them, what to say, all that stuff! It's brilliant!" Aang triumphantly pumped his fists into the air, and the top of the streetlight bent back awkwardly from the Airbender's accidental force.

"Toph as Ambassador to the Minds of Women?" Sokka snorted with a laugh. "Aang, Toph's the only girl I know who doesn't act like a girl. Aside from Smellerbee, but I still have my doubts she's _really_ a girl," he admitted. "Anyway, what does Toph know about dating?"

"A lot, actually," Aang said frankly. "She's been dating different people for a while now. No one serious, just a lot of guys she meets up with for dinner and stuff sometimes."

Sokka's face had dropped. "What's she doing that for? I thought she was all busy with her Bending matches, beating guys and winning money and stuff!"

"Yeah, Sokka, but it's not the only thing she does. A lot's changed since Katara and I…I mean, when you guys stopped coming to visit so much, I just made every moment of my life busy with work…I guess she got lonely." He shrugged.

Sokka took in this information, feeling guilty for his absence and Toph's loneliness, but still…

"Well, fine. Send her a letter. Tell her you need her help. Whatever," he said, inwardly fuming.

"Sokka, she can't read," Aang reminded him. "We'll just go see her tomorrow. It's not that far if we take Appa.

"Plus," he continued, "I'm sure she'll let us stay at her place if it gets late, so we could really put in some hours of practice at a club or something. Yes, this could work!" Aang exulted. "Soon, some lucky girl out there will be falling for me, Aang the Airbender! And then one day when Katara is out shopping along the Boulevard, she'll see me and my new honey smooching over a raspberry cream cake, and she'll be so jealous and want me back, and finally Katara will truly and forever be my Forever Girl!!"

The elated Aang soared up into the air as he unabashedly crowed his romantic optimism. "Sokka, the winds are changing! Good things are coming our way! Can you feel it?"

Sokka flicked away another bit of ear gunk without looking up. "Seriously, Aang," he said coolly, "you need to calm down."

For unlike Aang, he was not looking forward to hearing Toph's dating wisdom.

--

To be continued…

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A/N:

Huzzah to failed Sokka/Aang shenanigans! It could have worked except Sokka can't help but be so outrageously wrong that it's funny! Lmao Oh, goodness…

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P.S.

I ship Tokka and Kataang, but I don't own Tokka and Kataang.


	9. Enter Stonehenge

Chapter Nine

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Enter Stonehenge

--

--

Toph laughed in their faces when they came to her door, begging for her help.

"You guys are having girl problems, and you're coming to _me?_" she crowed. "Oh, this is just too _good!_"

"Look, will you help us or not?" Aang asked, slightly perturbed as Sokka seethed next to him. "We're coming to you as friends. Friends who need your guidance and training so we can be successful in the pursuit of love, and—"

"Okay, okay, okay, Twinkeltoes, no need to get your panties in a twist. Of course I'll help you. If nothing else, I'll have get several good laughs out of it."

"Great! Thank you so much! Now let's go!" Aang enthused, taking her hand and turning to leave.

"Go where?" she asked, yanking her hand back.

"To the bars! The clubs! Wherever the women _go_ around here!"

"Calm down there, Aang. The only place I'm going tonight is to the ring. I've got a fight with The Boulder's so-called prodigy in an hour, and the bets are high."

"Hoohh," Aang complained, countenance drooping. "But I wanted to get busy tonight."

"Trust me, Twinkletoes, I will never _ever_ teach you how to 'get busy.' But come to the fight tonight, and maybe afterwards we'll go out," Toph offered.

"Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Aang exclaimed, seizing her hand in both his and shaking it rapidly with his enthusiasm.

"What about you?" Sokka asked Toph. "You want to go out right after a fight? You'll be dirty."

"So? I'm not the one who needs to snag a date, now am I?"

--

--

"Crush him!! _Crush him!!_ WOOOOOO!!" Sokka howled, cheering on the fighters in the ring.

"When's Toph's fight? Is it soon? I hope it's soon. It's almost nine o'clock. Think about all those girls out there tonight. Surely one of them is willing to date me and isn't a complete loon. And with Toph's help, it could happen, right, Sokka? Don't you think tonight's the night I finally get a good date?"

"Oh, you're going down! DOWN!! Woah, and now you're going up!! YEAH, Exploding Rock to the Back Attack!! Kick his butt out the ring!"

Sighing, Aang tried to pay attention to the fight and take his mind off everything else, but it proved near impossible. He just couldn't stop twitching impatiently.

"Well, that guy's taken care of! He'll be in the hospital for a week, I bet! Hey, I'm going to make a run for popcorn, you want anything?"

"Nah, I'm good," Aang declined.

"Suit yourself," Sokka said, jumping down the stadium seating steps two at a time.

Aang scratched the side of his nose in boredom. Hearing a pair of giggles to his right, he turned to see a couple of girls some feet away bent together conspiratorially, snickering behind their hands. Slowly Aang realized they thought he was picking _inside_ his noise, and he quickly began to explain himself.

"It was just the side! _The side!_"

This caused them to erupt into another fit of giggles, and they turned away from him, still laughing.

"Hoooohh," Aang complained again, pouting. "I hate being awkward."

The next two contestants entered the ring, and Aang felt slightly better about the world and Lady Fortune to see that Toph's round had finally come. He didn't feel particularly peppy, but he made a show of it for Toph's sake.

"Wooo, Toph! Take him out!" he shouted.

Amidst all the catcalling and cheering, Toph discerned his voice and presence in the surrounding crowd and gave him the thumbs-up, which she then held out to her opponent, holding it still upward for a moment before then turning it decisively downward.

"Yeeeaaahh!" Aang yelled.

"People may call you an Earthbending prodigy in the ring, Stonehenge, but _I'm_ the original!" Toph shouted her smack-talk for all to hear. "I guarantee the next thing you see will be the sun shining after the widdle nap I'm gonna tuck you in for!"

From behind his bear-shaped facemask, the rock-hard figure of Stonehenge shouted back at her. "Go ahead! Tuck me in all you want! I'll try not to enjoy, sweetfeet!"

Toph never wavered to other fighters' provocations, but this one really got her.

"Don't. Call. Me. Sweetfeet!"

And completely ignoring her usual method of operation, she attacked first.

She sent a chunk of rock flying at him, but he dodged it and volleyed one back at her. Moving away just in time, the projectile merely grazed her sleeve, tearing a slight hole in it. Toph knew the hole was there, even if she didn't have time to feel for it, but just the knowledge that he had come within millimeters of her skin on the first attack infuriated her, and she quickly prepared to strike at him again.

--

--

"What, is it Toph's fight already? Why didn't you tell me?" Sokka cried, rushing back up the steps to join Aang.

"Sorry," Aang mumbled, only half-listening as he intently watched the fight.

"So'd I miss anything? The guy's not down yet, must have just started, huh?"

"I don't think he's going to go down so easily," Aang muttered, absorbed in the battle.

"Huh? Really? What kind of fighter can stand up to Toph?" he asked shoveling popcorn into his mouth.

"I don't know, but he got Toph pissed."

"Seriously?" Sokka turned his full attention to the fight now.

"You're right," he realized. "She's all over the place, and he's just jumping out of the way. Man, he's fast for a big guy! Woah! I can't believe she just missed! That was such a clear shot!"

Toph couldn't believe she'd missed either, and it enraged her all the more.

"You want me to tuck you in so bad?!" she shouted. "Then get over here, so I can put you down to sleep!"

"Tuck him in? What does that mean? The only tucking I'm seeing is the tuckering her out he's doing," Sokka couldn't resist the joke, but he wasn't laughing. "Come _on_, Toph! Knock him out of the ring already!"

Toph discerned this, too, and gave Sokka a gesture as well, though entirely different in intention and meaning from the one Aang had received.

"Hey! Did she just do what I think she did?!" Sokka cried, affronted. "I was just trying to help!"

"This ends now, Pixieshit," Toph growled, preparing her next attack. With a great sweeping motion, she flung an arc of debris directly at him as he landed from yet another evasive jump five yards away. Stonehenge easily deflected the attack, grabbing a larger chunk and pitching it back at her. It struck her in the chest, and she dropped to her knees—but as she did so, she swiftly brought her arms upward. A pillar of rock slanted up from the ground behind Stonehenge, catching him in the back of the head and instantly knocking him out.

"And the winner is The Blind Bandit!" shouted the announcer, running out to grab her arm and raise it victoriously in the air. Toph's other arm gripped her chest painfully as the fans screamed and screamed and the announcer put a bag of money into her hand.

"Toph! Toph!" Aang and Sokka yelled, racing to the side of the ring, preparing to dive into it.

"Stop!" Toph told them sharply, and they did.

She lowered her arm from her chest and rose to her feet. Wincing, she then held up both her arms as her fans cheered around her. She then quietly walked over to the perimeter of the ring where Aang and Sokka stood, staring at her anxiously, and she proceeded to climb down and exit the arena. Aang and Sokka followed, not sure whether to say anything or not, but refusing to let her leave alone.

"Toph," Aang tried.

"I'm fine," she snapped.

She breathed for a moment before saying, "I just need to change, and then we can go."

"Go where?" Aang asked.

"Out."

"We're not going to go out! You just—"

"You wanted to." Breath. "So we're going to."

"Toph, not if you're—"

"I'll be right back," she said finally and disappeared into the locker room.

"Sokka, we can't let her do this! That was a really hard hit, and she never gets hit! We need to take her home to rest!" Aang cried, worry and anxiety evident on his face.

Sokka broke his silence until this point and said, "Wait here, Aang. I'll go talk to her."

And he went into the locker room, leaving Aang to pace back and forth in the hall.

--

--

"Toph," Sokka called, knocking along the walls as he entered to alert her to his presence, even though she could surely sense him already. "Toph, I'm coming in."

Receiving no response, he turned the corner and found Toph seated upon a bench, stuck half in and out of her shirt.

"Don't look at me!" she said harshly as he approached, trying to worm her way back into her top, but struggling with the pain it caused her chest.

"Here, let me help," Sokka murmured from beside her.

"No. I can do it myself," she choked. "I'm fine."

But anger, frustration, and humiliation clawed at the defensive walls she had constructed within her, even as she tried to mask the hurt.

"Let me help you," Sokka said, gently taking her shirt in his hands.

"I had to do it. I had to take that hit to beat him," she explained, chokingly. "That's why."

"I know," he said, and her resistance broke. He lifted her shirt off her.

Beneath the shirt her body cowered under his gaze, smaller than he expected and her skin innocently pale. The beginnings of a very nasty bruise smoldered just above her chest bindings, bleeding slightly where the rock's rough edges had torn the skin.

"Oh, baby," he whispered, bringing her to him in a gentle hug.

Toph bit her lip to hold back her tears, but the walls inside her shattered as something entirely different from the anger and frustration and shame joined the cyclone and ripped its way through.

Losing her long fought for and prized sense of control, a sob escaped her lips, and she collapsed into his protective embrace, pressing into and muffling her sudden wrenching of sorrow with Sokka's chest.

--

--

Aang waited patiently for them in the hallway, his fit of pacing now quelled. He was no longer concerned about hitting up the nightspots and tracking down a date; as soon as Toph's knees had hit the ring, his only concern became taking care of his friend and seeing her get well. He knew that he and Sokka both would stay at her side for as long as it took, no questions asked, no complaints made. He just hoped (though he did not expect) that Toph would accept and concede to their help.

"We'll need to buy duckotter broth. It's probably best she just have something easy on her system. That's what Katara always says when we get hurt…" he fretted to himself.

"Aang? Oh, I thought it was you!"

Aang turned to see a girl with short unruly hair and a pretty, hopeful face smiling widely at him.

"Do I know you?" he asked, confused.

"What, you don't recognize me?" she said, tugging at two imaginary ponytails on the sides of her head.

Aang stared at her.

"…Meng?"

--

To be continued…

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A/N:

Is it snotty of me as a writer to say I adore this chapter? I sat down to write it, intending for it to go one way, but again, inspiration redirected me and here we are! I hope all of you are as pleasantly (dare I hope ecstatically?) surprised as I am! And for those of you who care to know, Stonehenge will make another—if not several more—appearances in this fic!

And yes, 'Pixieshit' shall be his nickname from Toph. His Tophname, if you will.

Yee! I'm so psyched to know what you all think! X )

Squea!

--

P.S.

I own Stonehenge.

The character, I mean.

Not so much the thusly-named prehistoric monument in southern England.

Oh, and I don't own Avatar.


	10. Establishing the Blocking Forces

Chapter Ten

--

Establishing the Blocking Forces

--

--

Unsurprisingly, Toph proved a rather difficult patient. She resisted having a doctor come see her; but after much squabbling, Aang and Sokka hauled in a doctor anyway and forced her to let him examine her. Nothing had broken, but she was severely bruised for the time being, which would make it painful for her to move her arms for a while. He told her she should not be lifting heavy things (such as books—she glowered at him at this), should not be climbing (it would be difficult for her to carry her own weight—she roared), and should not be Earthbending (all Hell broke loose).

While Aang chased after the fleeing doctor to thank him kindly for his services, Sokka did his best to calm her down. After her breakdown in the locker room, however, she refused his consolation, her inner walls reconstructed and reinforced with a vigorous enthusiasm to regain the honor and control she perceived as shaken and uprooted.

She finally got him to leave by saying she needed to take a shower and that he'd better leave if he valued his life. Sighing, Sokka left her fuming yet bitterly satisfied in her room, and after grabbing an apple, plopped down on a floor pillow to munch away as he mulled over the situation. How could she be acting like this after the tender moment they had shared? When she had opened up like that to him and cried, he felt as if they had become closer in an entirely new way—finally she looked to him as someone who could protect her. But now she wouldn't listen to him and rebuffed his efforts to talk with her and make that connection again. He just didn't understand why she had to be so—

A heavy knock came at the door, and Sokka heaved himself to his feet (for some reason he felt exhausted) and stumped with his still broken leg to the front hallway to answer it. Opening the door, he looked half a foot below him at a youth whose muscled were startlingly evident through his shirt, for his shirt was startlingly tight. "Spandex?" Sokka thought with revulsion. "Wait, no, that's cotton. Damn, he's bulky." The young man also had a thick set of eyebrows, a curly mess of burnished brown hair, and a chiseling jaw appearing beneath his baby face.

"Hi, can I help you?"

"Yeah, I'm here to see The Blind Bandit," he said confidently. "Toph, right?"

"Yeah…I don't think she's accepting visitors right now," Sokka said sardonically.

"No, it's cool. I'm a friend," he explained, muscling his way into the apartment.

Stunned by the guy's behavior and the "friend" comment, Sokka froze for a moment, unable to do anything but twitch his eyebrow indignantly as the guy wandered into the family room and checked out the place.

"Wh-who are you?" Sokka finally managed, striding after him.

"Nice digs," the young man said, ignoring the question. "She's sure got style."

Sokka couldn't put his finger on it—though he almost felt like putting his fist on it—but he did not like the expression on the guy's face at that moment.

"Look, whether you're a friend or not, Toph doesn't want to see anyone right now. Not even me." Saying this last bit made it sound decisive and final somehow, and a great part of him wanted it to sound that way to whoever this guy was. "You should—"

"Mind if I wait here then until she's ready?" the guy asked, sitting on the same floor pillow Sokka had been using.

Why was this guy so infuriating? The littlest things he did set Sokka off and made him want to smash his face in, though he had a better sense of self-preservation than to hit a muscled guy, especially a short one. But hit! That gave him an idea! Maybe he could get the guy to leave by hitting on him and making him really uncomfortable! That would work for sure, even if he ended up getting punched.

"So, come here often," he cooed, sidling over to him, instantly in character.

"Nah, this is my first visit," he said, unperturbed by Sokka's sudden change of tone and behavior.

"That so?" Sokka dropped down to the pillow beside him, inches from the guy's face. Eyes half-closed and lashes fluttering, Sokka puffed out his lips and smiled at him.

"Yeah…" The young man blinked confusedly, but he didn't flinch.

"That's funny," Sokka continued. "Me either. Don't you think it's fate that we're both here at the same time? Out of all the people in the world, it's just the two of us right here, right now. Isn't that…—he drew out the moment to maximum discomfort—_special?_"

"Only as special as you want it to be."

This provocative statement made Sokka recoil in horror, breaking character as the young man burst into laughter.

"Man, I _thought_ you were bluffing!" he said, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye. "Ha, heh heh, that was a good one."

Then he became serious. "So you like her, too, huh?"

Sokka was just about to say something—he didn't even know what—but then another angry voice filled the room and rang through the apartment.

"WHAT IS _HE_ DOING HERE?!"

--

--

Aang had chased the doctor for some time (the old man ran like the ex-Fire Lord Ozai was on his tail), and when he (the doctor) finally ran out of steam, Aang stepped in to calm him down and then take him home before he passed out from exhaustion and over-stimulation. Taking the time to walk instead of fly home, Aang meandered through the marketplace, looking at this and that and enjoying the peaceful bustle of commerce of a people who seemed so much more relaxed than they were five years ago. He stopped to buy some fresh fruit for the next day's breakfast, when he heard a familiar voice nearby. Looking around, he spotted the source two stands down at a jewelry vendor. Forgetting the fruit for the time being, he approached.

"Hi, Meng."

"Aang! What are you doing here?" she asked, visibly surprised to see him.

"Not much, just buying some food for me and my friends. Look, I'm sorry our conversation was cut short the other day. My friend got hurt and everything, so—" he started to explain.

"Aang, it's okay. I know how important your friends are to you." She looked away shyly. "By the way, how's Katara?"

"Oh, Katara?" It was Aang's turn to look away shyly. "Um, she's good. Yeah. Teaching Waterbending up in the Northern Water Tribe."

"Oh, really? That's so far away. Isn't that difficult?" Meng asked sympathetically.

"Um, not really. I mean, it was," he said. "When we were together. But we, uh, broke up. It was a mutual thing." He didn't know if that last part was a lie or not.

"I'm so sorry, Aang. I know how much you cared about her."

"Thanks," he said, and an awkward silence followed.

"So what are you doing in the Fire Nation?" he finally asked, breaking the uncomfortable moment.

"Aunt Wu said I would find my destiny here," she replied, picking up a necklace and examining it.

"Oh…she did, huh?" Aang said nervously.

Meng looked back at him. "Don't worry. I'm not the crazy little girl I used to be. I'm not assuming you're my destiny, and I'm not reading anything into this. Fate wanted us to meet again, but that doesn't determine anything." Her eyes spoke to the truth of her words, but also hinted at a bit of disappointment as well.

Thoroughly embarrassed, Aang backpedaled. "I-I didn't mean anything like that. I mean, it's been five years, right? Of course you're different! We're both different! I would never suspect you of-uh, any questionable motives or intentions! Really!"

Meng glanced at him as she turned back to the jewelry again. "Sure," she said. A small smile of amusement pulled ever so slightly at the side of her mouth.

"Sorry," Aang mumbled, knowing she'd caught him.

She shrugged. "I was a weird little kid. I thought every guy was my one true love back then. You were just nice enough to reject me gently."

Aang started to say something, but she interrupted.

"Actually, I'm still pretty weird, I guess," she considered with cheerful amusement. "When Aunt Wu told me I would find my destiny in the Fire Nation, I didn't really want to come here, so I went to Ba Sing Se instead. I wanted to check out the Earthbending tournaments, and once I started going, I realized my dream to become a tournament groupie! When I heard some of my favorite fighters were coming to fight in the Fire Nation, well, that just seemed to be what Aunt Wu was talking about, so here I am!" She grinned at him.

"Oh, well that explains it," Aang said, slightly overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of information. "So do you like it he—"

"Excuse me," said the jewelry vendor. "The market is closing for the day. We need to pack everything up, if you wouldn't mind moving, please."

"Not at all! Sorry!" They stepped back at the same time, accidentally bumping into each other. "Sorry!" they said to each other.

"Um, well, it was really nice talking with you, Aang," Meng said, blushing. "I always wondered how you were doing after you left."

"Yeah," Aang said, agreeing with the first part, but trying to avoid acknowledgement of the second part, since he hadn't really thought about Meng at all in the past few years. "I'm glad we could catch up."

"Well, bye, Aang." She bowed to him cordially, then turned and started to walk away.

"Um, Meng!" he suddenly called after her, surprising himself as well as her, for he wasn't really thinking at this point. "Do you want to meet up somewhere sometime? And catch up some more?"

Meng smiled broadly—he didn't think she could smile any other way—and she called back, "Okay, Aang! You know where to find me! An Earthbender groupie never abandons her fighters!" And in her happiness she excitedly ran off.

"It would be nice to catch up some more," Aang thought to himself as he walked home. "I mean, it's not like it'd be a date or anything…"

--

--

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Toph shouted. "What the hell are you doing here, Stonehenge?"

"Stonehenge? _You're_ Stonehenge?" Sokka cried in disbelief. "But you're so short!"

The comment about his height didn't faze him, for he merely replied, "You saw me from the audience, right? I only looked taller because I was up against shorty here."

"So actually, I'm this tall," he said, laying his hand flat on his head and sweeping it back and forth to give Sokka a good idea.

"Yeah, I can see that," Sokka returned acerbically, again feeling the urge to punch the guy in the face, though also thinking better of it since this _was_ the fighter who had managed to hurt Toph.

"Quit talking about how tall or short or whatever you are, and _leave_ before I get really mad," Toph growled.

"I'm pretty sure you should be resting your sweet feet, Sweetfeet," Stonehenge countered genially. "After that little knock I got in, it should be pretty tough to move your arms or anything else too much."

"Shut up! I'm just fine, thank you. That little pebble you hit me with wouldn't have hurt a fly."

Stonehenge strode over to her. "That 'little pebble,'" he said, pointing to her chest, mere inches away from actually touching it, "probably hit you right here, and I bet you've got a pretty nasty bruise there, too."

Toph was livid, and Sokka ready to pounce.

"It's nothing compared to the one you gave me, though. You can't see it, of course, but I've got a welt the size of the Earth Kingdom on the back of my neck, a la you, The Blind Bandit." He rubbed the place thoughtfully, considering her furious gaze, which focused a bit to his left, though he knew she intended it for him.

"I just wanted to come check on you and see if you were okay," he said, his tone still infuriatingly friendly. "I look forward to the next time we meet, be it in the ring or elsewhere on different terms."

"Oh, it'll be in the ring!" Toph challenged, clinching her fist threateningly at him. "And don't act so familiar with me, little boy. I'm too much for you to handle."

Stonehenge gazed at her for a moment, then said simply, "And that's what makes you so captivating." And with that, he left.

"Wh-!" Sokka choked out, still staring after the Earthbender's exit in disbelief. "What the hell was that? Was he just _flirting_ with you?!"

He turned to look at Toph and faltered when he saw her reddening cheeks.

"I don't—I don't know," she said, and she put her hand to her bruise, thoroughly bewildered.

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

So here's my take on what kind of guy it takes to be a Secret Admirer of Toph. Someone just as outrageously confident as she is, but with a penis, so outrageous confidence times two!

Haha Just kidding.

He is really confident, though, and he's likely to give the Gaang a run for their money.

As for Meng, well, that's to be seen. She's wacky with a heart, and of course, you can't expect her to be 100 sincere all the time. She still has her secret jabs at people and situations, and you can bet she wasn't too terribly sad to hear about the Kataang break up, but at least she has the decency not to crow atop their dead relationship. At least not in front of Aang. She might do that later. And the Kataang-ness is not dead, of course, just on extended hiatus.

…Maybe.

Haha Just trying to keep it unpredictable!

So, all in all, a fun chapter, I think, all a lead up to intense jealousies ruffling the fluffy feathers of the Tokka and Kataang good times, so please stay tuned!

--

Reader Responses:

SparklePants92-- I'm glad you are starting to "luff" the story! lol And I'm glad you enjoyed chapter 9 and the silly Aang moments! He's such a sweetheart and a joy to play with as a writer, and I really appreciate the feedback!

melakem-- Wow! You reviewed each chapter! That's so awesome! I appreciate it so much, and I hope you continue to read and laugh along with me! (Oh, and "legendary" cooking should be kept legendary for a reason. lol!)

Demonking101-- Thank you so much for all your reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying all the action and fun and romantic squabbling!

Kryptocow-- Yeah, Sweetfeet-I mean, Toph! got really mad. And got a booboo. But she got a Sokka hug. I wouldn't mind getting really mad and getting a booboo if I could get a Sokka hug. But maybe that's just me...

Lord Sneeze-- Hehe Toph as "ambassador to women" will surely be a sight to see. Or read. But whatever.

PandoraNC-- Oo, bringing Onji in would be cool, but I kind of worry that her boyfriend would beat me up for trying to set her up with Aang. Maybe she will make a cameo in the fic, though...? It's an awesome idea! Oh, and don't worry about the Kataang. Heehee

kangoxrou/Kimi-- I'm glad you like my writing style! That's one of the hardest things for a writer to develop, I think.

BlackXRosesXRed-- I'm glad you love the fic! I can see what you mean about bashed Tokka pride with the ending, but in a way, I feel okay about it just because I don't see it lasting with Suki. I think they'll both move on, and by that time, Toph will have grown, too, and then they'll be ready for each other. Basically. haha And I'm so glad you like Hakoda and Mazane! I didn't intend for her to seem like an older Suki, so I'll bring her back in at some point and give her a personality. Oh! Burn, Suki, burn! Just kidding. lol But I'll give her some fire of her own because she isn't meant to be a carbon copy of any of the other characters.

avatargirl92008-- Thanks! I hope you continue to read!

Pink Pagoda-- You're asking _me_ what's wrong with Sokka? Dude, I just write the fanfic! lol Just kidding. It's concussion crap that's making him screwy. Poor Sokka.

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P.S.

Stongehenge is mine. Yay to his curly hair! I picture him as a human-sized Hobbit, though still pretty short, of course. Heh heh

Please leave a review on your way out! Please and thank you and plenty of Avatard lovin's!


	11. Cactus Juice Cameo!

Chapter Eleven

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Cactus Juice Cameo!!

--

--

Sokka sulked about in the living room for the rest of the evening, and Toph disappeared into her room for a thorough dose of alone time. Aang found his two friends thusly occupied when he returned.

Fortunately, Toph recovered from her injury quite rapidly over the following days, and as her health improved, so, too, did her mood. Sokka, on the other hand, continued his Sulk Fest and did little more than eat and gripe, which irritated Toph and drove her back to her quarters. Though wary about leaving the two of them alone in the apartment together, Aang also desperately needed to get away for a while, so one night later that week he told them he was going out for a bit to meet a friend.

Now this perked their interest.

"Who is she?" Toph asked, immediately understanding the shadowy reference to an appointment with a girl.

"It's Meng," Aang answered. "But we're just friends. It's not like we're going on a…you know…"

"Give me ten minutes to get ready," Sokka said, clambering to his feet, finally quitting after forty-eight straight hours his Cushion Comfort Fortress on the floor. "I have got to see this."

"You guys, it's not a—!" Aang began, alarmed by their assumptions.

"Can it, Twinkletoes. We'll tell you what it is when we see it with our own two eyes. Or, two eyes and two feet…or whatever. Come on, let's go before Grumpybritches finishes shaving off his stubble."

--

--

"Oh, you brought friends!" Meng said, trying to sound pleased instead of disappointed.

"I didn't really bring them. They just kind of followed," Aang explained quietly.

Meng blushed as he leaned close to tell her this. "Yeah, well, what are you going to do, I guess? Haha!" And she laughed loudly.

"I know, right?" Aang said, smiling kindly, not noticing her awkwardness.

"Oh, now I have to impress his friends, too! Or at least not look like a moron!" she thought to herself anxiously.

"I recognize you," Toph said as Aang introduced them. "You're at the competitions a lot. You sit with the other floozies."

"Toph!" Aang cried, and Meng twitched angrily. "She's a groupie, not a floozy!"

"Last I checked the whole pack of them were just around to snag fighters to be their boyfriends," Toph shrugged, completely ignoring Meng's heart rate, which quickened heatedly with every word she said.

"Look, some of the girls are like that, but _I'm not!_" she affirmed. "I'm a groupie because I love the spirit of it all: the fights and all the hard work the fighters put in and watching them grow stronger and win more battles; and I love to be there for them when they lose because that's when they really need a fan to cheer them on the most!" She had to stop to breathe. Aang and Sokka backed away slowly, eager to stay out of it.

"You love the "spirit" of it all so much, then why do you only support the big strong men? What about the female fighters?" Toph grilled. "If you're not out to get yourself a boyfriend, then why don't you support your fellow woman?"

"Fine, then, I'll be your groupie! Happy?" Meng snapped.

"I don't care who you support," Toph replied.

"But you just said—"

"I was just pointing out that you're doing what all the other ring-around-the-floozies do: stand around the ring and be floozies," she said.

"But I'm not a floozy!" Meng turned to Aang, desperately seeking to prove herself, and repeated, "I'm not a floozy."

"Don't worry," Aang smiled. "I know."

"Whoze a floozy? Youze a floozy? Are you the flooziest? Hey, you know what's the quenchiest? Cactus juice! Drink up, everybody!" Sokka interrupted, lightening the mood considerably as he downed his third glass.

--

--

Much later that evening, after a fun night out of catching up, dancing, and drinking, the four of them walked home. Rather, while Aang and Meng walked, Aang used his Airbending to both push Toph and Sokka along and to keep them upright.

"They can't really hold their cactus juice, can they?" Meng giggled.

"No, not really, and it's worse 'cuz neither of them knows when to quit. A monk, on the other hand, lives without such excesses," Aang said piously.

"I notice your cheeks are a little red there, too," Meng pointed out with an unabashedly broad grin. "And it looks to me like your friends aren't walking in as straight a line as you _could_ make them walk."

Aang looked away sheepishly.

"Avatar Aang, I think you yourself are a little tipsy!" Meng laughed as he blushed furiously.

"It was just one drink! And half of one of Sokka's when he wasn't looking, but I was just trying to keep him from getting completely wasted, really! Hooh, this is so embarrassing! What kind of monk am I?" he agonized, mournfully clutching his face in his hands, the sudden movement accidentally sending Sokka and Toph soaring into the air, with great giggles from the one as the other heaved on the balcony of someone's house.

"Aang, it's okay. You're allowed to have fun, too. You're seventeen. You _should_ be having fun," Meng said, gently lowering his hands, in effect lowering Toph and a green-faced Sokka as well.

"Why does everyone keep saying that? No, it's not even everyone. It's just Katara. Oh, it _wasn't_ mutual, Meng! She broke up with me because she wanted to date other guys. Why would she _do_ that, Meng? Why would she choose people she doesn't even know yet over me?" Then something occurred to him. "Maybe she _does_ know people. Maybe she left me for _other people_."

"Katara would never do that, Aang," Meng said. "You know that. And I don't know why she made the choice she did, but I know it wasn't to hurt you. Why would anyone ever want to hurt you, Aang?" She bit her lip, bashful about this unintentionally tender disclosure of her feelings.

Aang was quiet for a moment as they continued to walk (Sokka and Toph alternately stumbling and lurching, and Sokka's cast clunking all the while) along the peacefully vacant midnight street to Toph's apartment. Then he said, "Thanks, Meng. I feel better. And I'm sorry to bother you with all of this. It's just been difficult lately."

They stopped outside Toph's door as Toph fumbled drunkenly with her keys.

"Ah, screw it," she said, and with a sloppy stomp cleared a hole in her wall and stumbled through. Sokka staggered after her, but not before she closed up the wall again; and bashing his face into the sudden barrier, he slumped to the ground, where he proceeded to pass out.

"I had a really good time tonight, Aang," Meng said, looking shyly at the Airbender as the soundtrack of Sokka's snoring crooned in the background.

"I did, too, Meng. We should do it again sometime," Aang said, taking her hand in his and swinging it back and forth playfully.

Meng laughed, but blushed all the same. "I know you're a little drunk right now, but—"

"And you don't seem drunk at all!" Aang observed belatedly. "How's that?"

"Oh, well, I've had practice. A floozy knows how to hold her cactus! I mean groupie! A _groupie_ knows how to—" she stopped.

"Well, maybe I'm a little tipsy, too," she confessed. "But it takes quite a bit to get me as bad as _that_." She nodded at Sokka's hunched up figure, face on the ground, buttocks in the air.

Aang laughed. "I probably should let him sleep out here and learn a lesson, but he's already got a broken leg. Can't let him catch pneumonia, too."

Meng laughed with him, but she was distracted. He still had her hand in his. Meng slid it from his grasp.

"Aang," she began again. "You can say you were drunk and pretend to forget this later, but…"

And she kissed him.

The kiss was too brief for him to respond or return or reject or anything, and she mumbled a hurried "goodbye" and left before he even had a chance to blink. Startled, he stood there for a while, considering the girl, the kiss, and the situation. He didn't know what to feel.

But he knew he didn't feel bad.

A particularly loud grunt from Sokka interrupted his confusing thoughts, and with a sigh, he lugged him through the front door, using Toph's spare key hidden in the ground beneath the welcome mat. Upon entering, he found Toph sprawled across the floor right in front of the wall she had Earthbended open and shut. She, too, was dead to the world, and he dragged Sokka over to her. Leaving them to lie there asleep on the floor beside each other, Aang went to bed to escape the exhausting confusion of consciousness; but despite his current worries, he still found himself able to enjoy a small smile of amusement at his friends' expense.

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

Yay to another fun chapter! I know Toph's the one who doesn't like to fly and be up in the air, but I have a hunch she loosens up quite a bit when she's got cactus juice in her system. And Sokka? Well, he loosened up a bit _too_ much, ne?

In other news, I think I will be shifting over into Part 3 of this story soon. That doesn't really mean anything in terms of where I post the fanfic—it will all remain under this title—it's just a distinction between things that are going on and characters that are involved for the time being. Kataang's blocking force nearly completely in place, Katara will be returning soon, and I dearly conspire that we have _not_ seen the last of darling Stonehenge. Oh, there are many places to go and people to see before it's all over, and I have no idea when that will be. I pray I may finish before I go back to school, but it's looking more and more like I'm going to keep going with this for quite a few chapters. Every time I sit down to write a chapter intending to do one thing, I end up focusing on something I suddenly feel needs development. I'm pleased with the results so far, but it's also making this rather epic compared to what I originally planned. Please bear with me, though, you awesome readers, you, and please leave plenty of reviews because I am a **review whore** and your comments are **my writing aphrodisiac**. You think I'm joking, but **it's so true**. /sighs with shame in light of her review whoredom/

Until the next installment!

--

P.S.

I own…none of these characters this time. Oh, well. Maybe I'll just have to have a baby in here somewhere? I wonder?


	12. Conflicts and Accords

Chapter Twelve

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Conflicts and Accords

--

--

Sokka stirred to life, vaguely aware of a certain feeling.

A familiar feeling.

A particularly _ill_ feeling.

Clapping a hand to his mouth and keeping his eyes tightly shut in response to the sudden nausea, he blindly probed his surroundings with the other as quickly as possible, seeking any hollow object. His fingers brushed against something fairly large; and like a giant octopus, he pulled the article to his body and coiled himself around it as he proceeded to fill the item in question with his leftover stomach juices from the previous night.

Once purged of his digestive upset, he closed his eyes and rolled over to sleep off his now apparent headache. Something kept tickling his nose, however, and he tried to bat it away, but to no avail. Grunting his annoyance, he swept at the tickly source again, and this time his fingers connected with something soft and warm.

He blearily opened his eyes, and a vision of a sleeping Toph lay before him. He gazed at her calm countenance, her hair swept back from her pleasantly featured face, her lashes quiet and still, and her mouth slouched open beneath his fingertips. She was so much like herself at this moment, but also different somehow. Maybe it was that in sleep one could see her softer side, the inner self she kept guarded with protective walls and attitude. Or maybe, Sokka considered, she's still comatose after last night…

It had been her breaths tickling his skin; and when she exhaled again—against his fingers now—he felt an altogether different kind of tickle as her energy passed through his fingers all the way to the pit of his stomach where it trembled and hummed.

He swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat, and, his brain oozing pitifully somewhere into the crevices of his skull, he scooched closer to her, his fingers gliding gently to her neck, his lips reaching for hers.

Her eyes opened.

He nearly swallowed his tongue from fright.

He remained very still, praying she would not catch him, that maybe she was going to start sleepwalking, that maybe it was just a weird tic blind people had to open their eyes in the middle of slumber.

Her nose twitched.

"Holy…What _stinks?_" Her hand flew to cover her nose.

That was when Sokka remembered one of the cardinal rules of kissing. Never kiss and barf. _Never barf and kiss, rather_, he corrected grimly, _but whatever._

Instantly clamping his mouth shut to prevent further fumes from seeping out, he curled up like a pill bug and escaped by rolling away as quickly as possible, his cast leg knocking into walls and doorframes in his haste.

Toph sat up, now braving the smell as she sniffed around for the source of the odor. Her nose led her to Sokka's Stomach Contents Refuse Upheaval Unit (more commonly known as a SCRU U), and she turned a sickly color as she fully realized just what scent was pouring into her investigating nostrils.

"Good God!" she shrieked, jumping away from it. "Who the hell blew chunks in my house?!"

From the living room, Sokka pretended to wake up very loudly. Too loudly, in fact, for before he could muster his most innocent sounding "What's that, Toph?" she had rushed into the room and flung herself upon him, grabbing his shirt and yanking his face to hers. With one sniff, she knew the truth and shoved him back to the floor, pinning him there.

"Damn it, Sokka, it _was_ you! What are you, some kind of pig? Hell, even _Momo_ knows not to do that in someone's freakin' _house!_" she shouted.

"Hey, where _is_ Momo?" Sokka wondered suddenly.

"Don't try to change the subject! By God, Sokka, you go clean that up _now,_" she hissed, standing up and not bothering to step over him, opting to boot him in the side as she went.

"Ow!" he smarted. "Come on, Toph, you'll make me do it again!" he whined.

"CLEAN IT UP, BARFBAG!" And with that she slammed her bedroom door shut. Mere seconds later Sokka heard the shower turn on full-blast.

Grumbling, Sokka tracked down the cleaning supplies and apron he had originally bought for Toph when he and Katara and Aang had helped her move in. She had never used any of these things, of course, least of all the apron, and Sokka cursed under his breath as he slid it on over his clothes and tied it around his waste.

"Rule #1 of cleaning up others' puke, your puke, and unclassified puke," Sokka recited to himself. "Make sure none of it can get on you."

"Besides," he thought, fingering the design on the front of the apron, "It's got a cute little baby chicken on it. Toph should _want_ to wear it. Piyo piyo!"

Lugging all the unopened cleaning products to the front hall, he finally looked upon his makeshift SCRU U. It was clearly a pot of some kind, but Sokka had rendered their original contents practically unrecognizable. Curiosity trumping his repulsion, he quickly set to work clearing away his vomit to excavate that which lay beneath. He was puzzled by what he discovered.

"Flowers? Toph doesn't keep flowers in her apartment."

He lifted the pot above his head and turned it around slowly, inspecting the sides and the bottom, looking for some hint or clue to explain its rather sudden appearance. He set it down again and stared at it. He thought he maybe saw an accompanying note in a small envelope, damp and soiled now because of Sokka's hangover shenanigan.

Sokka hesitated to touch it, but…

"I've gotta read it!" He grabbed the pixie-sized envelope, opened it and tossed it away in favor of reading its contents.

The card inside read

_To Little Sweetfeet,_

_I know since I left, you've been feeling lovesick._

_So let's go on a date—it'll do just the trick!_

_Sincerely,_

_Your Love Stoned_

"What the hell!" Sokka shouted, immediately ripping the card to shreds.

"Toph can't see that," he reasoned after his initial burst of anger subsided. "This guy's good—she could actually fall for his rightly-called 'tricks' if she knew what it said. I'll just put the card into the trash bag along with the rest of the mess and save her a lot of grief." He had to admit it sounded like a good plan, and he congratulated himself for the idea.

--

--

Meanwhile, Aang hesitated outside the Bending stadium main entrance. What was he going to do? He could neither forget Meng's kiss, nor could he ignore it. He would have to confront her, but not in mean way, they just needed to talk about the fact that she kissed him was all, and that he didn't really like her that way, or at least he didn't think he did, but he could tell her that without hurting her feelings, right? As characteristic of the Airbending way, he approached the problem from many different angles, struggling to find a good solution. However, with people neither an absolute nor a certain solution exists, and he knew this and tried to accept it. Okay, fine. He accepted it. He could go in now.

But what was he going to say?

Instead of entering the building, he entered into another crazy self-contained debate and paced anxiously back and forth. Meng found him thus as she exited the building with a gaggle of her fellow groupies.

"Aang, hi!" she chirped, though it felt to her like a squeak. "How are Toph and Sokka doing?"

"Oh, uh, they were still sleeping when I left," Aang mumbled, glancing nervously at the girls using the excuse to wait for their friend as a means to stay and eavesdrop.

"Let's talk somewhere else," he said, taking her hand, and in a rocket-like blast of air, they soared up to the roof of the stadium.

The gaggle below squealed in shock and delight, and Meng blushed furiously, dreadfully certain what topic of conversation he had in mind.

"Look, Meng, I—" he started, but she quickly interrupted.

"Aang, it's okay, I get it. I made a mistake. You don't like me, you like Katara, and I made a fool of myself. Do we really have to go over it all again?"

"Meng…" Aang said, hurt to see her so upset.

"I haven't even said anything yet," he realized bitterly, "And she's already on the verge of tears. What am I doing wrong here?"

He didn't have time to ponder this, for one thing he did know was that the most painful he could do to her would be to remain silent.

"Meng, it's not like that."

"Really? Because you didn't kiss me back, and you're not looking especially in love with me right now, so I'm pretty sure it _is_ like that," she returned, hugging herself as she turned her indignant eyes on him. It struck him that she looked very young at that moment, to the point of childishness, but the sorrowful flame of unreciprocated love burned in her eyes. He felt very close to her then, closer than he had when they were both younger and in a very similar situation.

"I do care about you, Meng," he said, startling himself as much as her as he related this realization. "But I'm not ready for anything yet, and I don't know when or if I will be, and I don't want to lead you on. It just wouldn't be fair."

Meng watched him intently, not saying a word. She loosened her grip on herself, and it looked as if her body sighed and let go of something, the intense fear of rejection from the boy she had fallen for twice.

"If Aunt Wu says my destiny is here in the Fire Nation…" she began slowly, "And I'm not saying you're destiny, Aang, but if you are…"

She lowered her gaze and smiled softly. "I don't really mind waiting here…"

--

--

"So did you throw out your bucket o' barf?" Toph asked, exiting her bedroom, hair still damp from her shower.

"Yes, Toph, I threw it away," Sokka sighed heavily. "I know how to clean up sometimes, you know."

"Yeah, _sometimes_," she emphasized, walking around to sniff her apartment and make sure all traces of the puke smell were gone.

"Hey, Sokka," she called from the front hallway. "What's this flowerpot doing here?"

"I dunno," he replied, shrugging. "Maybe Aang got it as a get-well present for you."

"I don't think so. Why would he give it to me now? I'm fine."

Sokka rolled his eyes, though he did have to admit she _was_ recovering very well and not wincing and cringing as much as she had.

"Was there a card with it?" she asked.

"No! Nope! No card!" Sokka piped, immediately adjusting his pitch to a deep and (what he thought was a) take-no-prisoners' sort of tone. **"No, Toph, I haven't seen any card."**

Toph was skeptical. "That's strange because I can feel where it was in the dirt. The indentations are clear."

"You can _tell that?!_" Sokka cried, his pitch jumping up several octives and giving him away.

"Where's the card, Sokka?"

"I-uh-I dunno," he tried to lie again, though very poorly.

"You have no right to go through my mail!" she shouted.

"If your friends can't go through your mail, then _who can?_ You can't _read!_" he countered.

"That doesn't give you the right to read it without asking, you jerk! Who were they from? Who sent me flowers?" she demanded.

"Your little boyfriend sent them!" he shouted.

"My little boyfriend? What are you talking about? Which one?"

This was _not_ what he wanted to hear.

"_Which one?_ Just how many guys are you dating, Toph! All the Benders in the league?" he shouted, knowing he was being ridiculous and pissing her off, but not taking the breath to give a damn.

"Just because you can't get a date doesn't mean I'm not allowed to!" she yelled back, bristling with hurt and anger and pride.

"Woah! Where the hell did that come from?"

"Like you care," she spat, grabbing up the potted plant and throwing it to the ground where it crashed and sent clay and dirt scattering. "Whoever this guy is, he doesn't matter to me and neither do his damn flowers. But what I do is my business, Sokka, and if you don't like it, then you can leave."

Still brimming with anger and a separate and inexplicable rage, Sokka at least had the sense to concede grudgingly that he did not want to leave.

"Fine, then, stay. But you need to grow up." And for the billionth time that week she stomped to her room and slammed the door.

"I'm not the _only_ one that needs to grow up," he muttered under his breath, kicking over some of the throw pillows to let off some steam.

"You're beating up the furniture…did I come at a bad time?"

_"Katara?" _

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

Yay! Cliffhanger! I told y'all Katara was coming back soon. Hm…I think this marks tomorrow as the beginning of Part 3 perhaps. Huzzah!

And a couple things to point out:

Hehe I just now realized I haven't included Momo in the fic so far. Well, he's not dead, folks, just…_not_ around at present and _not_ barfing in people's homes, which are two important things to note, I assure you.

Today's chapter included cameos by Maison Ikkoku's leading lady Kyoko's signature chicken-garnished apron! Yay! Mad props to Rumiko Takahashi!

Oh, and SCRU U? S'all me, baby. lmao Next time you're about to barf, just call for a "SCRU U," and trust me, people will come running to help. Not really. But if they got mad and tried to fight you, at least you'd end up puking on them, which is GAME OVER _always._ Never get tetchy with someone who's wretchy. XD

So, yes, I hope you enjoyed today's chapter, and I look forward to seeing you at the next if you'd like to join in! And don't forget! Please review! It's the only pay I ask for my whore-like services. Peace and love!

--

P.S.

Again I do not own any of the characters that appeared in today's chapter. I did own the potted plant and note Stonehenge oh-so-romantically sent to Toph, but then Sokka barfed on and tore up the note and Toph smashed the plant, so…I don't want either anymore. Oh, and it was supposed to be silly that Sokka would think Stonehenge's poetry would even impress Toph a little, but the poor dear's so overcome with jealousy that he's just not thinking clearly. /sigh/

And please review! /points to self/ Review whore because!


	13. Changing of the Tide

And Thus We Enter the Third Arc

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Chapter Thirteen

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Changing of the Tide

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--

"Katara, what are you doing here?" Sokka asked, dumbfounded to see her suddenly appear in Toph's apartment.

"I came to see Toph. I didn't know you were here." She looked suspiciously at her brother. "Is it just the two of you?"

"Yeah," Sokka said, and when Katara raised a threatening eyebrow, he quickly amended, "At the moment. Aang's out doing something or other. Avatar stuff, I guess."

Katara paled. "Aang's here?"

"Well, who else would you think it would be?"

"I-I don't know. One of Toph's friends or something. I mean, she has others, right?" Katara muttered distractedly.

"I guess…" Sokka watched her carefully. "Katara, is something wrong?"

"Wrong? No. Nothing. I just thought Toph and I would have a girls' weekend, but you guys are here, so I guess some other time," she explained rapidly, heading for the door.

"Wait, you're leaving?" Sokka asked as he stumped after her. "Katara, we're all friends here, whether you and Aang are together or not. It'll be weird if you go."

"It'll be weird if I stay, too."

In an attempt to cheer his sister up with a laugh, he stroked his imaginary beard and philosophized, "You know what they say when you're stuck between a rock and a weird place…make lemonade!" He broke character. "Come on, Katara, stay and make some lemonade with us. We all want you here because we all love y—oops…"

"Oh, Sokka, you were so close to being the perfect brother, and then you blew it," she said clapping him on the shoulder affectionately, but she laughed and followed him into the kitchen.

--

"Does it count as a bad decision if I didn't even really decide anything?" Aang contemplated as he glided back to Toph's. "But it's not fair to Meng for me to say that. If I said it at all, then part of me must have meant it. I'm not a liar. And this is what I've wanted for the past month. I'm just feeling uncertain now because I'm scared of the thing I finally got that I've been working so hard for!" His thoughts finished in a rush, and he felt himself soaking up the meaning of the words and their impact. It helped him to have realized these things, but it caused a twinge of sadness as well.

"I can think this way because Katara taught me how…"

He shook his head quickly, as if it were an Etch-a-Sketch he needed to clear.

"I'm moving on. For better or for worse, that's what I need to do."

--

--

Meanwhile, Appa visited his very dear ox friend Bathilda at her human's ranch located on the outskirts of the city. Little more need be said.

--

--

Someone knocked on Toph's door.

"Screw you, Sokka!" she shouted, not turning away from the rock she tossed from one hand to the other out of sheer boredom.

"It's not Sokka," came a familiar voice.

"Katara!" Toph jumped excitedly to her feet from her reclined position on her bad and ran to the door. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you," Katara explained simply as she and her friend shared a hug. "How are you, Toph? What's going on with you and Sokka."

"Nothing's going on," Toph said shortly. "And I'm doing great."

"Right…" Katara said doubtfully. "You, uh, seem really great."

"How are _you_, Katara," Toph quickly changed the subject. "You and Aang are officially over. How's that going?"

Katara said nothing, hurt by her friend's sudden harshness.

"I'm sorry, Katara. That came out wrong," she apologized. "I just…how _are_ you doing?"

"I'm great, too," Katara forced herself to say.

"You know I can tell you're lying, right? Heartbeat?"

Katara flinched, caught in the lie. "It's just…I'm so frustrated with everything, Toph! I just needed _your_ company for a while because you're, well, _you_, Toph."

"Uh…thanks, I guess?"

"What I mean is, you're not, like, _so_ concerned with everything I do, and you actually care about _me_ and not who I'm dating," she explained. "I've gone out on dates and stuff this past month. There are plenty of interested guys because, well, I dated the Avatar, but we go out on these dates, and they're really nice guys, but then they get all _intimidated_ because I was with Aang. They're going out with me _and_ leaving me because I was the Avatar's girlfriend, and it's just _so_ stupid. I have _no one_ to talk to about it because all the other girls are either angry that I'm suddenly available and I guess competition for them, and then other girls are just _always_ bugging me about who I'm going out with and who I like and all of this, but then there are _other_ girls who _pretend_ to be nice and interested, but they're really just angry, and I really hate it!"

As her friend panted angrily after her cathartic rush, Toph remained silent, allowing her a chance to calm down before she spoke.

"You might be a girly girl and a total mom, Katara, but you're no cat," she finally comforted.

"And the worst part is that I don't even care," Katara continued. "I don't care that the guys break up with me before we even go on a second date. The truth is that I haven't liked any of them enough to care. And there have been several! I've probably dated over half of the guys in the Northern Water Tribe who aren't married and aren't as old as the glaciers."

"Why don't you like any of them?" Toph asked calmly.

"I don't know," Katara said, gripping her hair tightly in her frustration.

"Are you sure?" The question sounded insistent, but Toph was not.

"I don't know!" Katara repeated. "They're just not right for me, I guess. They're…"

Silence.

"They're not _Aang_."

Toph held her friend comfortingly in her arms as Katara proceeded to break down into tears.

--

--

"Did you take those flowers over to Toph's, Meng?"

"Yeah, first thing this morning," Meng replied, sweeping off the balcony outside her and the other groupies' communal apartment.

"Awesome, I owe you one," Stonehenge said, grinning. "She'll probably hate them, but I still wanted to give her some."

"I think it was sweet," Meng approved. "All girls like flowers, even if they don't admit it. It's just so romantic when a guy shows he cares!"

Forgetting her task, she heaved a dreamy sigh as images of chivalrous knights and beautiful ladies danced behind her eyes. Stonehenge watched her in amusement.

"I see you doing that a lot," he said, nodding to the broom clutched passionately in her hands.

"Yeah, I know," Meng said, returning to the present. "I just like to. I had all kinds of chores when I helped out at Aunt Wu's, so I just feel lazy if I don't help out here, too. Sometimes I even clean up after you fighters; and by the way, I've never met a more complete pack of slobs."

"Hey, I am not a slob. My mom would beat the crap out of me if I were even half as messy as some of these guys," Stonehenge defended.

"Oh, please, I've found your dirty underwear lying on the floor just as much as the next guy's," Meng snickered.

"Hey, nobody's perfect," he shrugged. "Not us, not the gods, not even the Avatar."

Meng looked sharply at him. "Do you have something against Aang?" she asked touchily. "With him being one of Toph's best friends?"

"With him? No, he seems nice enough. It's his friend who's going to try to be a problem. But what's got you so rattled over the Avatar? Do you like hi-…ooh…" he realized with a burgeoning grin.

Meng glared daggers at him, then heatedly resumed her sweeping.

"So _that's_ why you were so eager to take the flowers over! Jeez, you girls are so crafty when you like a guy." Stonehenge shook his head bemusedly. "Okay, that's nice and all, but you do know he probably has a girlfriend already, right?" he pointed out matter-of-factly.

"Actually, I happen to know he _doesn't_ have one because they broke up a month ago," Meng retorted snippily.

"Really?" he asked, mildly curious. "She's a fool for it. Aang's a good kid."

She whipped around to face him. "He doesn't need your approval!"

Stonehenge met her eyes quietly, unperturbed.

"You're a good kid, too," he said. "I hope things work out for you."

Conversation over as far as it concerned him, he left, and Meng glowered after him.

"Jerk," she muttered.

--

--

Aang glided down from the sky and landed in front of Toph's door. "Guys, I'm back!" he called cheerily, entering through the front hall and into the living room where he found Toph sipping tea from a seat on the floor.

"Welcome back, Twinkletoes. Where did you disappear to?" Toph asked.

"Oh, I just went to see Meng and talk with her about, uh, stuff," he blushed with a sheepish smile.

"Hi, Aang."

His heart skipped a beat, and his chest seized up as he turned to see Katara come into the room with a plate of cookies.

"Katara…" he breathed.

"Hi, Aang," she repeated, hesitated to meet his eyes, but when she did, he saw they were full of emotion, and his heart welled up to see them so.

"Oh, come on," Toph said loudly from the floor. "You guys knew you'd have to see each other again at some point, so can we just skip all the awkwardness and go one with it, _please?_"

"Toph!" Aang and Katara snapped angrily in unison.

"Just sayin'," Toph shrugged, picking at her teeth.

"She's right, though, Aang—_as crude as she is!_"—she snarled around Aang's shoulder to Toph, who merely continued to pick her teeth—"Things don't have to be weird, do they? I mean, we were friends first, so we can be friends again, right?"

She acutely remembered what he had said over a month ago.

_Maybe someday we can be friends again, but not yet._

She waited for his response and prayed that he felt differently now.

Aang hated to see her so shy and vulnerable around him, and it almost made him want to yell at her anyway. However, his new manta "gotta move on" repeated over and over in his head, so he said with a friendly smile, "We'll always be friends, Katara. You know that."

"And what I said before…—he remembered it, too—back then…it was because I was angry. I'm sorry I hurt you," he apologized.

"I'm sorry I hurt you, too, Aang!" Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, but she felt her spirits lift at his words.

"And I'm sorry I don't have any cookies in my mouth!" Toph interjected.

"Cookies?" Sokka stuck his head in through the backdoor from his sulky seat on Toph's porch.

"Fine," Katara sighed, setting the plate of cookies down next to the afternoon pot of tea on the low table, just as Toph and Sokka made a mutual dive for them. She sat down beside Toph and grumbled, "You guys can never wait, even when something important's going on."

"Just drink your tea, Sugar Queen. Moment's over," Toph said brusquely, but she gave her friend's hand an encouraging squeeze.

--

--

Later than evening when the others had gone to sleep, Aang snuck out of the apartment and took off on his glider. He soared on the nighttime breeze until he came to the intended balcony. He knocked softly but insistently on the glass door and waited as he heard someone come shuffling to answer it. The door slid open.

"Aang, what are you—?"

She stopped talking when she saw the intensity in his eyes.

"Meng, I have a favor to ask you."

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

And here is chapter thirteen, and nothing terribly unlucky happened! Or has happened…eek!

I am severely tired right now, but I managed to pull this chapter together, so thank goodness for that! I am looking forward to writing the coming chapters because things are going to be getting a bit tricky, trying to juggle all these characters and their dramas and such, so I plan to rest up quite a bit in order to be mentally equipped! That's my little rhyme for you guys. Hope you liked it! And I hope you liked the chapter as well! Peace out!

--

P.S.

Avatar does not belong to me, but thank you everyone for all your kind reviews! I can't wait to read some more, please! /wink/ lol


	14. Be My Date

Chapter Fourteen

--

Be My Date

--

--

The favor Aang requested was as follows:

Tokka's parents had sent their daughter an invitation to a party they were determined to throw in her honor since she had recently come of age, and they wanted every available male of notability and every person of notability with an available male friend or relative of notability in the Earth Kingdom to know their daughter was now a suitable age for marriage. The message refused Toph any "if's, and's or but's" about the matter, insisting that she attend under stiff penalty of entirely disowning her if she did not comply. Toph was more than willing not to comply and for them to follow through with their threat to disown her, but after much convincing from her friends that that is _not_ what she wanted to do, she gave in under the condition that they all attend the party with her in order to keep her from having a complete meltdown in her parents' home and blasting the entire estate to the ground.

Aang relayed all of this information to Meng though in a more frantic and hysterical manner.

"So what's the favor?" Meng reminded him as he gasped for breath.

"We need dates. I need a date," he breathed. "Be my date?"

Meng had not expected this, and her heart leapt to hear his sweet—though less than eloquent—proposal.

"Really, Aang?" she asked, feeling that it must be too good to be true: that he come to see her, that he even show up on her balcony at night, that he ask her to go to a glamorous party with him—all of it!

"Yes, Meng, I really need your help. Katara will be going, too, and I need to show her that I've moved on."

So it _was_ too good to be true.

"Oh," she mumbled, completely crestfallen. "So you want me to go out with you because of Katara and not because of me?"

Comprehension of the effect his preceding words and actions had on her struck Aang like a lightning bolt. "Meng, God, no, that's not…it came out wrong. I _do_ want to go with you. Because of you."

She listened carefully, hoping he would go on and say something very romantic to her now.

"But also a little bit because of Katara. She wants to be friends now, and I need to show her that we really can be friends, and if I have a date to the party, then she'll know I've moved on," Aang explained, thinking it would help.

It didn't.

"It's still about her. And it will probably always be about her," she sniffed, tears rushing to her eyes.

"No, Meng, I—"

"Damn it, Aang, get off my balcony!" she cried and rushed back inside before he could see her cry.

--

--

Meanwhile, another midnight encounter was about to take place.

Toph's eyes snapped open, and she jumped to her feet as a noise from outside entered through her bedroom window. She whipped back the covers and silently hurried to the backdoor, passing by Katara and Sokka's sleeping forms in the living room. Her feet did not feel vibrations of anyone moving around out there, but still she felt the presence of someone other than her friends nearby.

She quietly slid the backdoor open and edged out, limbs tensed and ready to act and react. Leaves rustled, but there was no wind.

"The tree," she thought and crept over to it.

Sure enough she heard a near inaudible intake of breath; and when she placed a hand on the tree, she very faintly felt the flutter of a heartbeat travel through the branches, limbs, and trunk into her fingertips.

"Sorry, Sir Shady Friend," she thought quietly to the tree with a gentle pat…

…which she followed with a kick so fierce as to rock the entire tree and shake the trespasser out of it…

…and fall directly on top of her, knocking her to the ground, the intruder atop her.

"So you found me," he said. "Good God, Sweetfeet, you are amazing."

Toph recognized the voice, but she was much too shocked to say anything.

"What was that sound? What's going on out here?" came Katara's voice. "Sokka, get a light."

"Already got one," Sokka said, rushing past her into the backyard where the light and his eyes fell upon the image of Toph pinned beneath Stonehenge.

"_You!_" Sokka hissed.

Stonehenge tore his admiring gaze from Toph and looked up at Sokka with a mocking grin. "Me," he confirmed.

Toph finally gathered her wits and prepared a kick very similar to the one before, though she planned to knock off something quite different this time…

…but she did not have a chance to execute it…

…because suddenly Sokka had tackled Stonehenge and pinned _him_ to the ground.

"Sokka!" Katara cried as Toph lay stunned, feeling with her sprawled out form the actions taking place.

"You think flowers and a card give you the right to stalk her in the middle of the night, you sick freak!" Sokka shouted between an onslaught of punches, most of which, it infuriated him to see, Stonehenge capably blocked and deflected, though some, it viciously gratified him, snapped the guy's head back quite sharply.

"Wait, what?" Toph asked, standing to her feet. Sokka suspended his assault. "Pixieshit, you sent me the flowers?"

"If you got them, then you know I did," Stonehenge replied. He knocked Sokka's arms aside and flipped him over as he used Earthbending to bind his hands and feet to the ground, immobilizing him.

"I got the flowers," she said, then stonily, "What did you do with the card, Sokka?"

"I didn't do anything," he lied, seething with anger and wrenching against his bindings.

"Tell me the truth!" Toph shouted.

Sokka lowered his head and muttered, "I threw it away."

Angry pause.

"Why would you do that?"

"Because you hate this guy, and you were going to throw it out anyway," he shouted.

"But it was my decision to do that, not yours! I can handle myself, and I don't need you to step in and do it for me!" She turned on Stonehenge next. "And what the hell are you even doing here stalking me? If you've got a death wish, I suggest you start prayin'." She cracked her knuckles menacingly. "But maybe you'd better start prayin' anyway."

"Toph, is it really that weird to you that a guy wants to be near you?" Stonehenge asked gently.

"Don't listen to that crap!" Sokka cried. "Toph, he—"

"Don't speak to me!" she shouted without turning. Her back was to him, and he felt the rejection keenly.

"Stonehenge, my parents are throwing a ridiculously expensive and unnecessary party for me that is sure to bore everyone who goes to tears," she said. "You want to be near me so bad? Then be my date."

"Toph!" Sokka shouted, but she ignored him.

"I'd love to be your date," Stonehenge accepted.

"Great," she said flatly. "Now get the hell out of here."

Stonehenge nodded and departed.

"You, too," she said as she passed by Sokka on her way back to the house.

"What, leave? Toph, come on," Sokka started.

"I want you gone. Until you can learn to respect my privacy, we're not friends."

"Toph!"

"Get lost, Sokka," she said lifelessly.

"Kind of hard since I kind of can't move!" he bellowed, losing his temper again.

"Figure it out!" she bellowed back and slammed the door shut.

"What the hell is her problem?" Sokka shrieked. "What's she getting all upset over this for? He's a stalker! That's not the kind of guy she needs around! She should count herself as lucky to have me to protect her! How many other guys would take on an Earthbending prodigy?"

"You shouldn't have taken him on at all," Katara said.

"Whatever," he snapped. "Where's Aang? _He'll_ be a friend and help get me out of this dirt trap."

Suddenly Katara realized the Airbender was not there, that she hadn't seen him since they all went to sleep in the living room.

"Where _is_ Aang?" she asked worriedly.

--

--

Meng awoke, and memories from the night before broke her heart all over again. She couldn't believe her supremely bad luck to have fallen twice for the same guy that ended up hurting her twice for the same girl. On the one hand, she knew it had happened, but on the other, it simply did not seem real.

"It is real, though," she continued to repeat to herself. "He doesn't want me, never has, never will, and it's time I just accept that because I can't change it."

Still, she had the urge to wallow in her grief, and she felt the balcony, aka The Site of Where It All Came Clear, the most perfectly miserable spot for the wallowing to take place.

She opened the glass door without pulling aside the blinds and stepped out into bright morning sun, feeling that it should have been a little less bright and a little more mournful, but she decided to do with it what she could and proceeded to heave a mighty sob.

Something stirred behind her, and she jumped with terror, whipping around to see what it was.

It was Aang, propped up against the sliding door, asleep.

Meng knelt beside him and shook his arm.

"What are you doing here so early?" she hissed, suddenly aware of all the groupies who could awake at any moment to find them there. She clapped a hand to Aang's mouth to stifle his loud yawn

"I'm not here early," Aang mumbled into her hand.

He pulled her hand away from his mouth. "I never left," he said.

Meng bit her lip, not daring to be hopeful again.

"I'm not trying to leave you, Meng. I want to get to know you better." He saw the doubt in her eyes. "Really, I do."

She remained dubious. "I don't want to play games, Aang," she stated.

"I'm not trying to play games with you," he said. "I know how much that hurts, and the last thing I want to do is hurt someone else the same way."

Meng nodded, not meeting his eyes.

"Meng…" She loved hearing her name on his lips. "I would love it if you'd go to the party with me."

She watched him smile at her, and she felt herself smile back. Then she closed her eyes, and even though she wasn't quite sure which of them moved first, she always wanted to remember that moment as the moment Avatar Aang forgot about everything else and just kissed her.

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

Yay! I managed to finish this for today! I feel terribly icky right now, but the chapter is still up, so huzzah! I don't really have much to say right now except I hope you enjoy/ed the chapter. And, of course, please leave a review and let me know your thoughts and such!

Ugh, I feel icky. Heugh!

--

P.S.

Not mine. Except Stonehenge. Oh, Stonehenge, you stalker, you. Guess Toph's into it, though...? o.O


	15. The Depths of His Despair

Chapter Fifteen

--

The Depths of His Despair

--

--

Toph and Sokka were no longer on speaking terms. Toph was, of course, mad at Sokka for lying to her and trying to run her life for her; and Sokka was upset because of, well, everything. Not only had she let Stonehenge lie on top of her like that, but also she did not even appreciate Sokka for kicking the guy's butt and protecting her, _as she should have_, he insisted. _And_ she had even asked the jerk to go to he stupid party with her! _And _she'd told him not to talk to her, _and_ she'd left him trapped by the idiot's Earthbending _all night!_

Sokka irately related these affronts to Aang when the latter finally glided in the next morning and freed him from his earthly bindings.

"Why didn't Katara get you out?" Aang asked, helping a stiff and sore Sokka to his feet.

"She took _her_ side!" he growled vehemently, not even referring to Toph by name now. "Put a blanket over me, then went inside to go back to bed, but _of course_ a big gust of wind would blow it off me and leave me here freezing my butt off for hours! Do you think she knows Airbending? Because I bet _she_ did it!"

"Sokka, calm down. You guys have had arguments before. I'm sure this will all blow over," Aang said as Sokka picked dirt out from under his toenails.

"No, Aang. What she did is unforgivable. I've been nothing but a good friend to her, and she keeps rejecting me anyway, so she wants me gone, I'm gone." His eyes suddenly assumed a lackluster quality as his volcanic anger hardened within him. "I'm getting my stuff and going back to the Northern Water Tribe."

At a loss for words, Aang followed his friend inside and watched solemnly as Sokka gathered his belongings scattered about the living room, making no attempt to quiet his actions, and possibly even trying to make them unnecessarily loud.

"Sokka, come on," Aang pleaded gently. "I mean, if Katara and I can be friends, then surely you guys can—"

"Friends? You think you and Katara can just be friends?" Sokka spat. "Be realistic, Aang. You and my sister can never just be friends. This whole get-a-date thing is your sorry attempt to make her jealous and try to win her back, but what you need to do is just _get over it_ because women don't know _what_ they want, and they'll step all over you when you try to be there for them!"

"Don't lash out at me because you still haven't moved on from Suki after all these years, Sokka," Aang glared, trying and failing not to let his upset friend rile him.

"Don't talk about things you don't know anything about, Aang. I stopped loving Suki a long time ago," Sokka said sullenly.

"Then what is your problem!" Aang shouted.

"I don't have one. _She's_ the one with the problem."

" 'She?' Sokka, just say her name!" Aang shouted. Then it suddenly occurred to him just what Sokka's problem was, and the realization about his friend blew over and startled him like a wakeup call.

"Sokka, you…" he began, but Sokka had already turned to go out the door.

Aang chased after him into the street, where they saw Katara and Toph returning home after buying fruit for breakfast.

"Aang, where have you been?" Katara asked, slightly irritated as she and Toph stopped and waited as the boys approached.

Aang did not answer as he watched Sokka coldly stride past Toph without a word or any acknowledgement of her existence. The message not lost on Toph, her expression crumbled furiously as she bit her lip to keep from crying.

"Oh, Toph," Katara murmured compassionately, taking the girl's hand.

_"Why is it that people in love hurt each other so much?" _Aang wondered, rushing forward to hug the heartbroken Toph.

--

--

Sokka passively settled back into his Northern Water Tribe dwelling and resumed his daily schedule easily enough, but for the next several days he declined to socialize outside of his work, opting instead to sit at home by himself and stew. He was getting very good at it, he decided, and wondered if he should just go ahead and quit his job to continue to improve upon his absolute inability to do anything at all. He seriously considered this one night when a knock came at his door.

Too busy doing nothing to be bothered, he didn't answer it. Besides, he still had more dirt to pick out from under his toenails. "The stuff gets into you and just won't come out," he mused as the knocking continued for some time and then finally ceased.

The next night the knocking began again.

"Sokka, I know you're in there," called Katara.

"No, I'm not," he called back.

"Damn it, Sokka, open up!" she yelled.

"Y'can't make me." He stuck his nose to his thumb and wagged his fingers at her, tongue sticking out.

"Wanna bet!" she shouted, and a cannonball of water blasted through his door.

"Woah!" Sokka cried, scrambling aside as she shot another rock-solid orb shot through the entrance.

"Okay, okay! You win!" Sokka shouted.

"That's more like it," Katara said, reaching through the first hole in the door to unlock it.

"Aw, Katara, why'd you have to go and put two holes in my door then?" Sokka whined as his sister crossed the threshold.

"Because you pissed me off," she retorted, putting her water back into her pouch.

"Oh, gods, Sokka, it stinks in here!" she choked, covering her nose and mouth with a hand. "Are you showering?"

"When I need to," he replied coolly.

"Well, you need to," Katara decided for him. "Go take a shower, and I'll be waiting for you when you get out."

As Sokka slouched off to clean himself, Katara took stock of the young man's abode and its cleanliness as well and found it seriously lacking. When Sokka emerged from the shower, he found her cleaning up spilled substances, dirty clothes, empty drink containers, and food he'd left out, among other vile things.

"Sokka, this is ridiculous," she said. "You need to get a hold of yourself."

"I don't need your help," Sokka grumbled, glaring at her.

"Fine," she said and dropped the armload of junk she'd picked up to throw away. "Suit yourself. We were going to do this the easy way, but now we'll just have to settle for the hard way."

She strode over to his bureau, rummaged through what clean clothes were actually still in it (which were, unremarkably, his nicer things) picked a couple items and threw them at him. "Get dressed," she said brusquely.

"For what?" he asked, looking at the clothes in his arms.

"We're going to Toph's party."

"What?! Oh, no, I'm no—hey!" he shouted as she threw his shoes at him next.

"Sokka, if you value your life and your worth as a person, then yes," she glared, "you will."

Sokka met her glare, but he could tell she was much more adamant on the matter than he.

"Fine," he groused. "I'm sick of eating noodles and canned soup anyway."

"Good," Katara said, a brief smile coming to her lips. "Because this?"—she gestured around the room—"is not happening again."

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

Hehe You know a guy's in love when his life completely falls apart. Same for a woman, too, but Toph has plenty of drama-rama coming up herself, and I need to spread out the drama a bit, so nothing becomes too one-sided. All must be balanced out, I say!

Happily, I feel a bit better today, but to make sure I get into the writing mood, I'll probably watch some Avatar AMVs on Youtube. My current favorite is this one here:

/watch?vYY9AX2SWxLE

which I SO recommend!! It's absolutely beautiful, and the song choice? Freakin' perfect! Several vid-creators have used this song, but I've liked this person's take on it best so far. Weee!

Anyway, things will be picking up shortly on the fluffy front, just please give it some time because wherever I take the story before then, it's because I have an artistic inclination as a woman and a writer to develop things…however they develop! How will they develop? I honestly don't really know right now, but I will figure it out soon! lol

As always, thank you so much for reading, I hope you're enjoying it, and I humbly request that you leave a review please!

--

P.S.

Do I look like I own Avatar??

I do??

Why…thank you! Heehee!

But I really don't. Waaah.


	16. Dressing Up

Chapter Sixteen

--

Dressing Up

--

--

"So when are we going to this party exactly?" Sokka questioned as Katara dragged him into a clothing store he was pretty sure had nothing to do with the party locale.

"Just as soon as I find an I-love-you-Aang-I-want-us-to-be-together dress," Katara said, bee-lining for the racks of swanky garments. "And I'll probably need some and-I-really-mean-it-you're-the-one shoes, too."

"And by you wonder why you girls drive guys crazy," Sokka rolled his eyes, dropping into a chair, his eyes immediately glazing over.

--

--

After Sokka had departed from Toph's, Aang and Katara had stayed for some time after, both for their individual reasons. Aang had become more interested in spending time with Meng; and Katara, less than eager to return to the Water Tribe and her dating drama there, sought after time with her close friends. Also, she kind of wanted to hang out with Aang, which proved difficult with his frequent, unexplained absence. She did not complain, however, and avoided nosy questions and anything that could lead to an argument, all for Toph's sake. Between Aang and Katara was a tacit understanding that they stay for Toph, who merely feigned an upbeat attitude over the following days.

Stonehenge came by often to see her, but she always turned him away; and surprisingly, he listened. But he always returned the next day, sometimes with flowers, sometimes with fruit, sometimes with candy, and once with a teddy bear, which, unsurprisingly, did not go over well. Though she still did not like him, she quickly learned to tolerate him, growing accustomed to his presence and attitude and not flaring up as easily. It made no difference in her ability to focus if he attended one of her fights, though by his own choice he kept away from her whenever they were both at the stadium.

Without telling any lies or slights of truth, Katara managed to convey to Toph that she needed to return to the Water Tribe before meeting Toph at her parents' for the party. Presumably, she had work-related business to work out with Pakku, but she had actually gone back to drag Sokka out of his house and to the Bei Fong Estate.

Aang and Toph continued to stay at her place until the day of the party, at which time they and Meng and Stonehenge rode Appa to the Earth Kingdom. The trip was quiet for the most part with Toph in a dismal mood, dreading the event to come. Stonehenge kept to himself, seated not too far from her, and Meng and Aang sat up front, where Aang mentally prepared himself for finally introducing Meng to Katara as his date, and Meng quietly worried that this was just what was making him so nervous.

--

--

"Come _on_, Katara, just _pick_ one!"

"What do you think of this one? Is it pretty enough? Not too slutty, but just right?" she asked, fingering the low neckline of the dress.

"I'm not even going to acknowledge that question," Sokka said, covering his eyes. "The less I see of you, the better."

"You know, it's not half bad," she said, looking at herself in the mirror and ignoring him. "Perfect shade of purple, you know, not too bright and not too light. Lavender actually. I love how it drapes, and maybe it's just me, but I feel like it gives me some cleavage!"

"Don't. Don't. Just don't," Sokka squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, revolted. "I never want to know what goes on in your head, okay? Never."

"Oh, quit whining, Sokka. I've made my choice. I want this one."

"Great, now let's just go. I don't even want to go to the party, but I'd so much rather be there than here," Sokka said, standing to leave.

"But I haven't found kiss-me-love-me-hold-me-sweetly shoes yet!"

"_Katara!_"

--

--

"Toph, dear, welcome home!" Lady Bei Fong trilled when she and her fellow attendees entered through the great doors engraved with the image of a flying boar. She embraced her daughter warmly, and Toph half-heartedly hugged her back.

"Hi, Mom," she said, her face slightly obscured by her mother's long flowing sleeve. "Hi, Dad."

"Hello, Toph. We're glad that you have come. Tonight is very important. Remember, you need to find a husband, so you will have someone to take care of you when your mother and I are no longer able to."

"Mom, Dad, these are my friends. You already know Aang, remember? The Avatar? Thought he'd kidnapped me when I ran away from home because you guys wouldn't give me any freedom?"

"Toph!" Aang hissed.

"Toph," her father said darkly.

"Great, you guys recognize each other," Toph said. "Moving on, this is my friend Meng. She's Aang's date."

Meng curtsied nervously, a bit overwhelmed by the wealth and pomposity around her.

"And this is my, uh, other friend Stonehenge," Toph muttered. "Yeah."

"I'm your daughter's date," Stonehenge explained, much to Toph's anger and chagrin.

"Will you shut up?" she snapped, whipping around.

"It's nice to meet you both, Lord and Lady Bei Fong," Stonehenge greeted courteously.

"You're dating my daughter?" Lord Bei Fong asked, raising a critical eyebrow.

"Yes, sir," he replied. "And loving every minute of it."

"_No_, he's _not!_" Toph barked.

"He's here to be my date tonight, yes, but that's _it_," she growled to her parents, but to Stonehenge as well, to make her point very clear.

"I'm pleased to hear that Toph," her father said, "because I would prefer you to be very open-minded tonight."

He eyed Stonehenge.

"And free from any pre-existing attachments," he added.

As a three-way glare fest took place between Toph, her father, and Stonehenge, Lady Bei Fong looked on anxiously.

"Toph, dear," she said, "Perhaps you and your friends would like to prepare for the party now? Get bathed and dressed and everything?"

Toph sighed. She already considered herself showered and dressed, but she knew her parents had already picked out exactly what she would wear, and her mother probably had one of the servants already trained to arrange her hair in a particular style for her.

"Sure," she muttered, and on this cue Lady Bei Fong beckoned four servants from the hallway, one to direct the two young men to a room, one to accompany Meng to another, and the latter two to oversee Toph throughout.

--

--

Some time later Meng knocked on Toph's door.

"Come in," Toph called.

Still a bit abashed by the Bei Fong Manor and hesitant to do or say anything she wasn't entirely sure she should--which was just about everything—Meng slowly opened the door. Toph's room, she found, was huge and ornate, but something about it felt stilted and lifeless.

"Does it always look this way?" she asked before she could stop herself.

"I don't know. Like what?" Toph asked sarcastically from the other end of the room behind a set of screens where the rightly supposed maid worked at fixing her hair just so.

"Right. Sorry," Meng said, realizing her blunder. "But your room is so fancy. I mean, it almost looks like…" Her sentence trailed off.

"Like nobody lives here?" Toph completed for her. "Yeah, you don't have to be able to see with your eyes to pick up on that feeling. Even when I lived here all the time, it still didn't feel familiar. Not really. I always feel like I can't breathe when I'm in here."

"Or anywhere _near_ my parents," she thought bitterly to herself.

"It…" Meng began. "It is pretty, though, like a picture."

"I'll take your word for it," Toph snorted, not displeased to have Meng with her at that moment. She always found it helped her to bear the whole being-at-home-with-her-parents bit if she had an honest-to-goodness friend with her to support her in the sense that the friend knew none of this rich people stuff was Toph. Her true friends knew and appreciated who she was, and their presence was the necessary spoonful of sugar to make the medicine (aka, her parents) go down. Usually that friend would be Katara, but for some reason Katara had not arrived yet, and until she did Meng proved herself a worthy substitute.

"Toph, are these pictures of you as a baby?" Meng asked from a wall of hanging paintings.

"I would guess so?" Toph said, sarcastically, but not unkindly.

"Aaw, you were so cute back then!" Meng cooed. "It doesn't even look like you."

"Okay, all those nice things I said about her? Gone," Toph snarled in her head.

Aloud, she said, "Gee, thanks. Here I was just starting to think you were sucking up, but clearly that's not the way you're going with this."

"What? No, that's not what I meant!" Meng backtracked. "It's just, you look so quiet and delicate in these paintings, and that's not really you is all. You're not the sheltered little lady in these pictures."

"Oh," Toph said, blushing, not sure how to respond to that. She hadn't estimated Meng as the type to accurately read people; she'd really just thought she was a brainless little airhead floozy.

"But maybe not," she considered now.

"Your hair is complete, Miss," the maid finally said. "Your makeup, too. You look very beautiful, Miss."

"I don't feel beautiful," Toph grumbled, standing up, eager to get out from behind the blasted screens. "I hate how ridiculously tight this stuff is. It's like pins and needles all over, just poking, poking, poking."

"But, Toph," Meng breathed. "You look beautiful!"

And she did. Her mother might not have been able to see her daughter for who she truly was inside, but she could certainly see her daughter for the beauty she could be on the outside.

Toph's usual generous sprinkling of Earth had been scrubbed away by both of the overseeing servants. Her makeup complemented her every feature without dominating it. The especially trained maid had freed her hair from its customary bun, curled it slightly to a gentle waviness, and rearranged it into an elegant twist along the top part of the back of her head. Sparkling amethyst-encrusted clips held back her bangs in a clean sweep across her forehead, and similarly styled earrings winked prettily from her lobes.

But the dress was the kicker.

Her mother hadn't seen her wear a dress in five years, and she seemed to think this would be her only chance for possibly another five; so she took pains to make this one night compensate for all the time Toph had clad herself in her warrior and casual wear. The dress at hand was humble in color—a pale spring green devoid of yellow tinges—but the seamstress had designed the soft free-flowing fabric to catch at Toph's curves perfectly, accentuating the assets she naturally had and gently de-emphasizing those she naturally didn't. Toph had always been rather short in stature, and a graceful slit up either side of the skirt afforded her the appearance of a longer leg, as did the tall heels of the shiningly silver shoes her mother had chosen. The thin straps about her shoulders and the low yet modest neckline highlighted her perfectly sculpted collarbone and porcelain skin. Her bruise had healed greatly, but makeup masked the leftover discoloration enough to trick the unsuspecting eye.

The effect of her mother's keen senses and Toph's natural beauty produced an image of startling loveliness, all the more enhanced to those accustomed to seeing Toph look so radically different.

"Wow, Toph," Meng breathed.

Toph blushed fiercely. "I hate wearing these stupid corsets. It's one thing to feel trapped in one's own home and family, but it's even worse to feel trapped in one's own skin."

"I know this is your party and everything, but I think I'm kind of underdressed," Meng mumbled self-consciously. "I bought the nicest thing I could, but still…"

"What's your dress look like?" Toph asked.

"Red. V-neck. Kind of swishy. My hair's too short to do anything fancy, but I put in some barrettes…" she trailed off. "I'm going to look weird to the other guests."

"Well, you look beautiful to me," Toph said, grinning. "And don't care about what those rich morons think. It'll just drive you mad."

She took off her shoes, dropping several inches as a result.

"Here. I don't know if these, um, match your dress or anything, but I would much rather you wear them," she said, offering them to the other girl.

"Toph, these shoes cost more than my dress!" Meng objected.

"Look," Toph said. "No one will be able to tell if I'm wearing them—this stupid dress is long enough to cover my feet. Either you wear them, or I chuck them out the window. I can't see a damn thing in these, and I will _not_ trip and fall and break an ankle because of a pair of ridiculous shoes."

"And, uh, they'd look prettier on you," she added as a kind afterthought but missing the mark.

"Thanks…" Meng said warily. "I guess it's much better entertainment for the random floozy to break her ankle at the party than for the pretty party princess to."

"Random floozy? Meng, you insult yourself. You'll always be _the_ floozy in my book," Toph laughed.

Meng's eyebrow twitched rather angrily, but she couldn't help but smile up at Toph as she bent over to put on the shoes.

--

--

"Are you done yet?"

"Yes, I'm done."

"Have we missed the party?"

"_No._ We're leaving to go now."

"Hey, check out that bag!"

"Sokka, no stalling!"

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

Okay, the final chapters are beginning because I have lifely matters starting strong in a week's time, and I really want to finish this and finish it well while I have the time. That being said, I am not going to rush things. I hope to end around twenty chapters, but if I feel the story requires one or two more than that, I won't hesitate to go ahead and use "extra."

So, yes, it is the beginning of the end, I think, and any and all suggestions are still welcome (preferably soon, so I can fit them in if I find they work for the story). Other than that, I always appreciate your feedback! Thank you so much for reading!

Oh, and another thing. What the heck would one call the Bei Fong family members? I went with Lord and Lady because Mr. and Mrs. sounds…wrong. lol

--

P.S.

These folks be not mine. 'Ceptin' Stonehenge, the little troublemaker. heh heh


	17. The Relative Calm Before the Storm

Chapter Seventeen

--

The Relative Calm Before the Storm

--

--

Lord and Lady Bei Fong requested their daughter wait in her chambers until the party began, so she could be properly revealed to all the guests at the right time. Toph grumbled heavily about this, but insisted Meng go on and not wait for her; Meng knew better than to argue. Besides, even though she felt embarrassed about her appearance compared to the extravagance of everything and everyone else, she still couldn't help but anticipate Aang's reaction to how she looked all dressed up.

With the assistance of one of the ever-present servants, she quickly found him and Stonehenge in the banquet hall, the both of them helping set up chairs and tables and move large decorative vases brimming with peacock feathers about the room. Aang's Airbending faltered when he saw Meng approach, and his cheeks turned red as he stammered out that she looked beautiful.

Meng beamed and took his hand.

"Come with me," she said, and the two of them went into a small, quiet room adjacent to the banquet hall.

"What's up?" Aang asked, curiously confused, but he quickly found out what was up as Meng turned around and kissed him fervently.

She pushed him back against the wall, her hands at his jaws, his neck, his shoulders. Though surprised by her sudden assertiveness, he wasted no time wrapping his arms about her, pulling her closer, feeling the fabric of her dress and the contours beneath it. Their lips parted with an inevitable gasp, and they stood there in each other's arms, foreheads leaning against the other's as each caught breath.

"What was that for?" Aang finally asked, a smile playing at his lips.

"For thinking I'm beautiful," she whispered, pecking him on the lips.

"Did I mention I think you're the craziest beautiful girl I've ever met, and I really, really like?" he said, a teasing grin across his face.

"No, you didn't, but we'll sort that out later," she said, taking him by the hand again and heading back to the main hall. "Somewhere Toph's dad couldn't walk in on us would be good."

--

--

As a twinkling pleasant night fell upon the Earth Kingdom, the Bei Fong residence filled with the party guests pouring in, among them Fire Lord Zuko, his uncle General Iroh, and their mutual relative Sora, a quiet young man who always became very nervous around the Avatar. As Aang approached his friend Zuko with a wide smile, Sora ducked behind Iroh and stared fixedly at the ground as the salutation took place.

"Zuko! Hi!" Aang greeted. "Where's the Mrs.?"

"I could ask you the same question," Zuko replied stern-faced, though he accepted Aang's handshake.

"Oh, um. No Mrs. You know that," Aang said, slightly hurt and indignant.

"Wife, girlfriend, friend, whatever you guys are," Zuko said, breezing over the issue. "If you're here, she's here, right?"

"Well, yeah, she will be later. I think she's running late right now," Aang informed him.

"Good. I have a Fire Nation/Water Tribe political relations campaign I need to discuss with her. I've been trying to get in touch with _you _about it for the past few weeks, but you decided to up and _disappear_," the Fire Lord growled, prodding Aang in the chest for emphasis.

"Oh, uh, yeah," Aang stuttered. "I kind of had a breakdown over the whole break up thing and needed time to, um, recover…"

"Aang, there you are!" Meng exclaimed as she joined him at his side and took his arm affectionately in hers.

"Time to recover, huh?" Zuko asked severely.

Then his face broke into a smile.

"Glad to see it's going so well," he replied with a laugh. Aang chuckled, too, out of sheer relief, but he wondered if Zuko couldn't be just as scary as his father when he wanted.

Aang introduced Meng and Zuko to each other, and then Lord Bei Fong stood on his fancy soapbox, so to speak, and all other conversations ended.

"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight is a very special night," he began. "For many years many of you did not know I had a daughter. That was as I wanted it then, for I loved my daughter so much that I wanted to keep her as close as possible and protect her…"

"Zuko, how's your mom doing?" Aang whispered to Zuko.

"She's sick," Zuko returned in a hushed voice. "Again. She'll never be quite the same, but she lives a happy life in the palace with my family and me."

Aang nodded sympathetically and turned his attention back to Lord Bei Fong and his speech.

"So you and this Meng girl, huh?" Apparently, Zuko saw it as his turn to ask a question. "Does Katara know?"

Aang bit his lip, and Zuko saw this out of the corner of his eye.

"Don't tell me you're planning to break the news to her tonight?" he pressed.

Aang's face brightened.

"Oh, I've got to see this," Zuko grinned, and there the whispered conversation ended.

"…and now my daughter is ready for marriage and for some lucky man to protect her and brighten her days for the rest of her life!" Lord Bei Fong finished. "Ladies and gentleman, I introduce to all of you my daughter Toph Bei Fong!"

With a flourish he gestured up the stairs behind him, and there at the top stood Toph, regal in her garb, but stony in her stature. All present clapped and expressed polite enthusiasm for her beauty, and Aang heard an audible sob of joy from Lady Bei Fong. Toph must have heard it, too, for her entire demeanor changed, and she curtsied very low to her guests, then proceeded to descend the stairs with the elegance of the confidence born and bred in her.

"I didn't know she was so pretty," Zuko said, quite taken aback and puzzled.

"I forgot," Aang admitted to him, clapping wholeheartedly for his friend.

"I knew," came Stonehenge's voice from behind them both.

Aang turned to see the Earthbender watching Toph and her every movement as she reached the landing, where she took her father's hand. Everything about Stonehenge's countenance suggested his utter infatuation with the smaller Earthbender, and Aang thought sadly of his best friend, who should have been there for her then and so much longer before.

"I can't believe Sokka's missing this," he sighed.

--

--

"We are _so late!_" Katara cried as she and Sokka hurried to the gate with the flying boar insignia. "This is all because you took forever deciding if you really wanted that bag!"

"It was one of a kind! How could you have let me pass it up? We need to go back right now and get it!"

"No! We are not going all the way back to the boutique so you can get a stupid bag. They're closed now anyway," Katara said as they reached the guest entrance where a sour-faced attendant asked for their names and invitations.

"Oh, well, let me just get it out of my pocket—oh wait!" Sokka cried sarcastically. "I don't have an invitation because Toph _banned me from her life!_ Guess I don't have to go now!" He crowed victoriously, starting to walk off.

"That's _not_ an accomplishment, Sokka!" Katara barked, grabbing the back of his shirt and wrenching him back to her side.

"Here is my invitation, sir, and this young man here is my date," she told the attendant sweetly.

"Date?! No way! I'm not going to be my own sister's date!" Sokka cried angrily.

"Now, now, Sokka! There's nothing wrong with being your step-sister's date! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!" she warbled, grabbing her brother by the arm and quickly dragging him past the attendant.

"This is a whole new low of pathetic," Sokka said darkly. "I hate you, Katara."

"Hate me while you can, Sokky-wokky," she said grimly. "Because as soon as you see her, you're going to be hating yourself."

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

BAM!! Get him, Katara! But don't get too much of an attitude yet 'cuz yours is a'comin', too. As is everyone's! Woo!

…

Methinks I am way too excited to break all these young people's hearts. But I've been doing that the whole time anyway, so what's a few more chapters with intense emotional climaxes throughout? BWAHAHAHAHA!!

Ahem.

I hope you enjoyed today's chapter, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

And just to explain myself with the whole lack of Zuko info: I didn't want to say to whom he was married and stuff because this is not meant to be a Zuko romance fic. I don't have a specific pairing preference for him, and I don't want to alienate anyone who does (or have them feel alienated or anything like that) because I know for some Zuko fans it is a touchy subject. Just please know that Zuko is touchy with someone! Enough to have a kid! Maybe two, even! Who knows? Maybe he had triplets or something! I basically just did not want to come up with Zuko's entire life for the past five years in the span of a chapter. It wouldn't do him justice, and besides, I think he's smexy when he's mysterious. hehe And Iroh didn't say anything because he's smexy when he's really, _really_ mysterious.

And I just created and threw in Sora spur of the moment. I don't think any of the Avatar characters are gay (at least, none are overtly gay, except maybe Haru, who we may very well see in the coming chapters), but I kind of wanted to add Sora to the story and have a crush on Aang because…Aang is lovable to guys, too! Yes. Really, I just thought it would be humorous to have a meek Firebender character with the hots for Aang. lmao! XD

And after a lovey-dovey dream with a phantom date last night, I had to write a make-out scene! Hope you enjoyed! Wiiiink.

Yeah, this Author's Note is much too long now. Again:

Glad you read.

Please review.

For it's th' nice

Thing to do.

Woot!

--

P.S.

I own nuthink but Stonehenge, Sora, and my awesome-ish "Please Review" poem. Griiiin.


	18. Into the Fire

Chapter Eighteen

--

Into the Fire

--

--

By the time Katara and Sokka had entered the Bei Fong's banquet hall, the party was in full swing. Along one wall stood a buffet of the best Earth Kingdom dishes cooked by the best in the business. At the far end of it guests quickly found the open bar and indulged in the variety of available wines and brews and cocktails, then wandered away, drink in hand, to sit with their party or stand and mingle. A large space intended for dancing obligated couples to fill it as a small orchestra beckoned with a pleasant melody.

"This is kind of…huge," Katara uttered.

"Yeah," Sokka gulped. "I forgot how rich the Bei Fongs are."

"Come on, let's find Aang."

"Oh, uh, are you sure? Look, I think I see Iroh. Don't you want to go talk to Iroh?" Sokka pressed, trying to divert her from Aang and the date she didn't know he had.

"Um, sure, maybe later," she said over her shoulder as she walked away.

Sokka looked after her, worried, but the fragrance of cooked meat reached his nostrils, and he immediately headed for the buffet, obeying the call of the Sokka Stomach.

--

--

Katara wandered through clutches of people, catching no glimpse of Aang, when someone grasped her hand as she passed. Startled, she turned to Haru smiling at her.

"Hello, Katara," he said.

"Hi, Haru!" Katara answered, matching his friendly smile with one of her own. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing very well. And you? Did you just arrive?"

"Yes, I was, ah, held up by my brother," she said, leaving out the part about her mad search for the perfect dress.

"That dress is gorgeous," Haru said. "It really becomes you. Where did you buy it?"

"Oh, um, I don't even remember, it's been so long," she chuckled.

"More like a few hours ago," she thought with a wince.

"Have you seen Aang?" she asked suddenly, trying to leave the topic of her dress. She just wasn't comfortable lying to Haru—his eyes always seemed to suggest he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"No, I haven't actually. But everyone is talking about the Avatar, and I figured I would see him and his date at some point, but so far just you." He winked.

"Oh, I'm not Aang's date tonight," Katara blushed with a shy smile.

"Really? I assumed you guys were here together."

"Not tonight," Katara smiled. "But maybe next time."

With that, she gave Haru's arm an affectionate squeeze and went off in search of Aang again.

--

--

Stonehenge approached Toph as she chatted with a gaggle of princely figures in pompous garb attempting to hold her attention for far longer than she could tolerate it.

"Excuse me, boys. Mind if I borrow her for a bit?" he said politely, stepping in.

"Actually—" one of them began, but Stonehenge flexed his arm muscles, which were, as always disconcertingly visible through his clothes, even formal attire.

"Thanks," he said curtly as the gaggle recoiled in fear and distaste.

"You're a barbarian, Pixieshit," Toph said as they left the rich young men behind.

"Anything for you, Sweetfeet," he replied, leading her onto the dance floor.

"Wait! I don't want to dance!" Toph said, pulling away. "Let go!"

"Come on, you're playing the part of princess for your parents so well. I'm sure they'd love it if you threw in a dance, too," he said, loosening his grip to appease her bid for freedom.

"Not if it's with you," Toph snapped.

"Not if it's with me," Stonehenge agreed.

Toph smirked. "Doing what my parents want, but not the way they want?" she said. "Sounds like a plan." And she placed her hand back in his and stepped out with him onto the dance floor.

--

--

Sitting down at an empty table, Sokka chewed his way through two gooselamb legs. He couldn't lie, the Bei Fongs knew how to throw a party, but he still wanted to leave.

"Actually, I could," he considered.

"But no," he decided. "I need to be here if…when Katara needs me."

He ruminated on this point, chewing on a dinner roll.

"If every breakable thing in this place didn't cost more than my life, I could take advantage of the bar…"

Finally he decided that his party plan was to enjoy the buffet until Katara broke down, at which point they would make their exit and deal with whatever came next.

"Good idea, Sokka," he congratulated himself, wiping off his mouth and returning to the buffet for seconds.

--

--

"This isn't working," Katara grumbled to herself. She had covered the banquet hall twice now, and still she'd seen nothing of Aang. She had even asked people if they had seen the Avatar, but no one had a definite answer, only that he was "around."

"I'll try standing on the steps to get a better view and then wait until I see him," she thought.

She climbed a fair ways up the stairs, keeping to the side so as not to loom awkwardly over the banquet hall like some sort of vulturequail. Her vantage point was good; she could see everything and everyone in the hall. Several times she scanned the length of the hall, but still to no avail.

"Maybe he left early?" she wondered. "Maybe—no, wait! There he is!"

Aang suddenly appeared, red-faced and laughing, from a room adjoining the main hall, and in his hand was another person's hand, and mixed with his laugh, another person's laugh, and matching his red face, another person's red face.

"Who is she?"

Something took control of Katara. She descended the steps and began making her way through the crowd, heading for Aang. Trying to find Aang. She bumped into people she didn't feel, heard grunts of upset she didn't acknowledge.

_Who is she?_

"Aang," she said when she finally stood in front of him.

Aang nearly plowed into her, she startled him so much just suddenly jumping in front of him like that. He ground to a halt, though, and breathed, "Katara."

Her eyes were sad, hurt, confused. He instantly knew that she knew he was with someone else, and it suddenly occurred to him that maybe she didn't just want to be friends, maybe her plea for friendship was her frightened, apprehensive, conscientious way of asking him to love her again. They had been in love for years, and their friendship had lasted even longer; he couldn't always read her, but he did at this moment, and it killed him.

"Katara, I—"

She wanted to say something, to avoid a situation here, now, just to accept it and swallow it and move on, but…

She shook her head and made a break for it. She headed for the stairs and the exit and the outside air where maybe she could breathe again.

"Katara!" Aang started to go after her, but someone squeezed his hand.

Oh.

Meng.

He turned to look at her.

"Aang, please don't," she whispered, pleading.

She said his name again, fighting against what she knew was inevitable, and it tore at his insides to pull away from her, feel her fingers quivering in the air where his hand had been, and leave her standing there amongst a crowd of strangers.

--

--

Sokka saw it all happen. As soon as Katara bolted, he abandoned his buffet table post and shot after her.

"She's heading for the stairs," he realized, and he cut across the dance floor to reach her as quickly as possible.

Toph felt him coming.

"Oh, God," she thought, panicking, trying to avoid a run-in with Sokka.

"Come over here," she said to Stone, pulling him off to the side.

She pulled a little too forcefully, however, and petite girl though she was, she managed to throw Stonehenge slightly off-balance. He quickly caught himself and her, and misinterpreting her unexpected tug as a flirtation, he drew her to him and murmured, "I thought you'd never ask."

Sokka ran past them just as Stonehenge lowered his lips to hers and kissed her.

And he saw.

And his brain stopped thinking.

But his feet kept running.

He slammed into one of the peacock feather-filled vases, and it toppled over and crashed to the floor, him landing on top of it all. The orchestra stopped, the dancers stopped, the party stopped. The world might as well have stopped. Guests turned to see what the problem was, and everyone around him stared, utterly wordless.

Then the conductor of the orchestra said, "Son, you're bleeding."

Come to think of it, his neck felt increasingly warm and wet…

And the world…the party…the dancers…the orchestra…

…Stonehenge…

…Toph…

…everything…darkened and became nothing.

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

Woah. So yes, this would be one of the less funny chapters (minus Sokka running into a vase, but he would so do that, I think). o.O I don't want to ruin the effect of this one with a long and unnecessary Author's Note, so I'll simply end it as usual with a "please review, it means a lot."

Peace.

--

P.S.

I do not own Avatar.

And if you should like to listen to the song I listened to while writing this, it is a beautifully heartrending song "Into the Fire" by Thirteen Senses.

Thank you.


	19. Reasons for LovingFighting

Chapter Nineteen

--

Reasons for Loving and Reasons for Fighting

--

--

She rushed out into the night air, ignoring the sour-face attendant's startled shriek; and not quite knowing where to go, she simply kept running.

"Katara!" she heard him shout behind her.

"No, no, no!" she pled silently. It hurt too much right now to think why she said 'no,' and the only thing she could process was that she did not want to face him.

Aang's legs had grown quite long over the years, however, and he quickly caught up to her.

"Katara, stop!" He reached out for her, but missed as she darted to the side to evade him. "Damn it, just _stop!_"

The Bei Fong yard sported beautiful, luscious grass, but as Aang Earthbended it, the ground beneath tore the green apart and shot up into three walls, enclosing Katara with no way out but through him.

"Let me go, Aang!" she screamed.

"Why won't you face me!" he shouted back.

"Because I don't want to hear it!"

"Hear what?"

"_Any_ of it! That it's over between us, that you've found someone else, that you love her—" She sobbed and swung around, so he couldn't see her completely breaking down.

"Look, it's not—" he began, taking a step toward her.

"I'm telling you to leave me alone!" she barked savagely as he continued to approach her.

"Katara, I—" he tried again, just behind her, reaching out to her.

"Damn it, Aang!" she shouted, whipping around, fists clenched to give him all the reasons in the book why guys needed to shut up and listen when a girl said 'no'…but she accidentally slugged him upside the head.

"Ow!" he cried, falling backward. "_Holy Aa_—! I mean, _me_—! I mean…God _damn it, Katara!_"

"I'm sorry!" she cried, dropping to her knees beside him. "That wasn't—! I didn't—! It was an accident!"

"Well, try not to have any more accidents that have to do with my _face!_" he shouted, stretching his jaw around to make sure it wasn't broken. It wasn't, thankfully, though it popped audibly.

"Aang, I'm sorry," Katara repeated.

"What were you thinking? Why the hell did you do that?" he asked harshly.

"I wasn't _trying_ to hurt you, Aang! I never have, and I never will, but you never understand that! You play the victim, like I'm trying to hurt you on purpose, and you make it all my fault, but you know what Aang? _I'm_ not the one who brought a date to the party tonight!" She was breathing hard, too mad for tears now.

Aang stared at her, stunned.

"All I ever did was love you, Katara, and you broke up with me," he said. "What did you want me to do?"

"Not fall in love with someone else less than two months later!" she shouted.

"That's not fair. How many guys have you dated since we broke up? Five? Ten? The entire male population of the Northern Water Tribe?!"

She slapped him. Hard.

"_Ow!_" he yelled.

"Congratulations, Aang," she snapped, standing to her feet. "That time I did mean to hurt you."

And she stalked away into the night.

--

--

Meng didn't know what to do or where to go. She leaned her back against the wall and slid to the floor with the vague notion that she should stay there in case Aang came back for her.

But she knew he wasn't going to.

She knew as soon as his fingers parted from hers.

No, she knew as soon he saw _her_. It was all over from there.

But she still held out hope.

Zuko spotted her there, and excusing himself from the gaggle of arrogant young men attempting to brownnose its way into his good graces, he made his way over to her.

"Where's Aang?" he asked.

"He left," she replied dully.

"Then why are you still here?"

"Because," she murmured. "He didn't want me…"

"He didn't want you to what?" Zuko asked, seeking clarification.

"No. He just…didn't want me," she repeated, and saying it out loud drove the point home for her, and tears welled up in her eyes.

"Katara showed up," she continued, unable to stop now that she had started. "She just showed up, and then he's gone, like I never even existed, he just leaves me here so he can run off after her! Why? I thought he really liked me this time!" She buried her face in her arms.

Zuko sat down beside her, his back to the wall as well, and he said, "He does really like you. He wouldn't make you think he did if he didn't. And he certainly wouldn't make out with you in the other room in the middle of his friend's party if he didn't either."

Meng's head shot up, a blush buzzing at her cheeks.

"Yeah," Zuko said. "It wasn't that subtle."

"But what I'm trying to tell you is not to doubt Aang's feelings for you. He takes them seriously, and he takes yours seriously as well. But what you both need to accept is that he should never have started dating you. He cares more about Katara than he does anyone else in the world, and she feels the same way about him, and no matter what happens on this little 'break' thing they're on, nothing's going to change that." He paused. "You knew it was going to end up this way."

Meng affirmatively choked on a sob and covered her face again.

"Katara's a lovely girl; she's a strong woman and a powerful Waterbender. But you have your own charms, Meng," he reassured her.

Meng nodded, encouraging him to go on. The skin around her eyes had turned red, and she wiped her nose with her sleeve.

Zuko pretended not to see this.

"You have your own charms," he repeated. "And you should remind yourself of those."

_Whatever they are_, he thought to himself.

"Thank you, Zuko," Meng murmured with a smile. "You don't look like the kind of person who could make others feel better, but I do feel a little bit less like going after Katara and pulling all her pretty hair out."

"You're welcome…" Zuko said slowly, the corner of his lip twitching as he attempted to return her smile.

_Whatever they are indeed._

--

--

Sokka woke from a bad dream.

And into another one.

"Where am I?" he asked angrily of the person looming over him.

"You're in one of the hundreds of rooms on the Bei Fong property."

"What happened?"

"You fell. Hit your head a little. Cut your neck. Lost some blood. Passed out."

Sokka grimaced in humiliation.

"One more question," he said. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Keeping an eye on your wuss of an ass while Sweetfeet waves away all her guests at her parents' command," Stonehenge shrugged. "Just trying to help out my little lady."

"She's not your little lady!" Sokka snarled, trying to sit up but falling back as his neck smarted fiercely from the strain.

"Sudden movements are not your friend right now," Stonehenge stated.

"You don't even know her," Sokka spat, ignoring his temporary caretaker's words.

"I've known her since she won the Earth Rumble Six Championship," Stonehenge said. "I was ten-years-old and could barely Earthbend when she beat up the biggest and the baddest of them like they weren't anything. Just this little blind girl no one took seriously, and she made everyone take her seriously because fighting is her life and what she's better at doing than anyone else. Even though she's blind. Or because she's blind, whichever. But she made me want to take on the world, despite my own handicap."

"Why, what's wrong with you? Muscles crowding out your brain?" Sokka wisecracked.

"No," Stonehenge said coolly, not losing his temper over Sokka's angry remarks.

"Then what? What's got you so handicapped and sad and pitiable?"

"Nothing now," the Earthbender said. "But it used to be a problem. You see, I'm blind in one eye." He pulled down the bottom lid of the eye in question, as if this would show the blindness of it.

"I might not have actually met Toph for a long time, but I've known her my whole life, or at least the part of it I care to remember. By watching her I saw it was possible to 'see' through vibrations in the earth, and I've been working on it ever since. She's why I'm a prodigy. She's the woman who made me into the man I am today."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sokka asked warily.

"Because I am in love with Toph and will stop at nothing to be with her," Stonehenge avowed. "And the sooner you accept that, the easier your life will be."

"Like hell I'm ever going to accept something like that!" Sokka shouted, pushing forward again only to collapse back onto the pillow panting.

"I'll take over now, Stonehenge," Toph said from the doorway. "You're welcome to stay in one of the guestrooms tonight, so go get some rest."

Stonehenge glanced down at a glaring Sokka, shrugged, and left without another word.

Toph approached the foot of the bed, and Sokka had to crane his neck rather painfully to see her, but it was so worth it.

"You're gorgeous, Toph," he said.

He thought she was going to blush and say something along the lines of 'thank you', but she did neither of these things.

"This isn't me, Sokka. This is money. This is my parents' money and servants trying to make me into something I'm not," she said seriously. "I don't know what I look like, but I know when I feel like I'm not in my own skin."

"It was just a complement, Toph," Sokka said gently.

"But it isn't to me! Don't you get that? You say I'm beautiful or whatever, but you're not saying it to _me_, you're saying it to the clothes and the makeup and the jewelry. Not all girls want to try so hard to be liked—_I want to be liked for being me_," she owned, her eyebrows knotting with the pain of her honesty.

"Toph," Sokka murmured. "I _do_ think you're beautiful. You're the most beautiful girl I know."

"Because I'm the richest girl you know! You don't get it! You—"

"Toph!" he practically yelled.

She fell silent.

"I get it."

Toph's eyes wandered away from his general direction.

"Is this about Suki?"

"No," she lied.

Sokka waited for her to come clean and would wait as long as necessary, and she knew it.

"Fine," she grumbled. "Yeah, it kind of is. You kind of dropped everything and everyone else whenever she and her pretty face came along. You forgot I existed. You stopped talking to me and being my best friend, all because she would make out with you and make you feel like you never had to worry about anything. And then when you guys broke up, you were _still_ hung up on her, and you didn't even notice when I practically _threw_ myself at you."

She found it difficult to continue.

"I tried _so hard_, Sokka."

"I'm sorry," he said. "I just…I don't know. I guess I was just blind to it. But I'm not now, so if your feelings are still the same—"

"My feelings concerning you don't matter," she interrupted. "That's because all you care about right now is competing with Stonehenge and showing him you're better by waving me around like a prize."

"What?" Sokka shouted. "What the hell, Toph?"

"Sokka, I'm in the ring five nights a week. I know what testosterone and adrenaline smell like," she said firmly. Then quietly, "And I know you, and I know when you're completely serious and when you're not."

"I _am_ serious," he insisted as she walked to the door. "Toph, wait! I lo—"

"No," she interjected. "You're jealous and pissed off at a fifteen-year-old boy who will never have a shot with me anyway."

"He's _fifteen?!_" Sokka cried in horrified disbelief.

This was, however, the wrong thing to say, and Toph slammed the door behind her as she promptly stalked out of the room.

--

Fin

--

Just kidding.

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

Woah! Emotional answers revealed! I quite like how this chapter came out. It's dramatic, but it still has some funny in there because, well, with all the broken hearts running wild now, it would just be too depressing for everything to be all tears. Besides, humor pervades all aspects of life, even the parts that don't feel at all funny to us in our times of emotional nadir.

This story might not end happily for all, but I will do my best to provide some happy side for all.

As always, thank you for reading, and please leave a review.

--

P.S.

I do not own Avatar, but I do own Stonehenge and his fifteen-year-old self of character twists and turns. heee


	20. Breakfast

Chapter Twenty

--

Breakfast

--

--

Katara had run off without properly thinking things through. It had become very late, and she had originally intended to stay the night at the Bei Fongs' after the party; but now she was roaming the streets, trying to figure out a new plan. By the time she finished blowing off all the steam from her argument with Aang, it occurred to her to try to find an inn or hostel in which to stay for the night, but they had all closed some hours before. She finally accepted that she had no choice but to return to the Bei Fongs' and hope they would not turn her away.

As she tried to find her way through the streets, the brisk night grew brisker as a cold rain began to fall. Hands above her head, Katara Waterbended it away from her as she went, but she still shivered; in her hurry to leave the party she had forgotten her coat. Her stomach rumbled audibly, and she cursed herself for worrying so much about finding Aang that she neglected to enjoy the Bei Fongs' buffet. Thoroughly miserable and exhausted in body and spirit, she stumblingly retraced her steps back to Toph and her parents.

--

--

Sokka woke nice and early with a splitting headache and a sore neck, and he considered staying in bed all day if consciousness was going to be such torture. However, one of the servants came by to inform him that a full breakfast would be served shortly, so he quickly rose and spruced himself (or as much as he could, anyway, considering his cast-bound leg and the bandaging at his throat). When he entered the hallway, the servant bowed and escorted him to the dining room, with which he had become familiar as a dinner guest some five years ago.

This morning, though, he did not expect to see so many familiar faces seated at the table. Nor did he expect most of those present to look as angst-ridden as he felt.

Toph sat quietly near her parents, Stonehenge chewing on a piece of toast beside her. Aang fidgeted to the left of Lord Bei Fong, and Meng sat sullenly beside him, not meeting anyone's eyes. Two more chairs waited to admit posteriors, and Sokka chose the one beside Meng and across from Stonehenge. With a glowering expression aimed at the other side of the table, he sat down heavily and brooded. However, he let no one's bad mood, least of all his own, deter him from falling hungrily upon the assorted breakfast dishes.

"Lord Bei Fong, Lady Bei Fong," Aang began, nervously trying to fill the awkward silence. "Thank you so much for your hospitality. It was very kind of you to let all of us spend the night."

Meng glared over at him as he said 'us.'

"The party was everything Toph deserved, and we're all so glad we could be here for her on her special day."

Three pairs of eyes around the table rolled at this, and Stonehenge merely stifled a yawn.

"Avatar Aang, Public Relations Expert," Sokka grumbled to himself as Meng bristled at Aang's use of the first person plural personal pronoun 'we'.

"Avatar Aang, it was an honor," Lord Bei Fong nodded politely. "Besides we have issue to sort out with this young man here." He pronounced issue as "issyoo" and gestured to Sokka.

"He has broken one of our most cherished vases," the lord elaborated.

"Dad, we have a million of those," Toph muttered, turning red with embarrassment.

"It was part of a set!" her father snapped. Then with a look of displeasure, he said to Sokka, "I will expect full compensation for both the vase _and_ the peacock feathers."

"_What?_" Sokka shouted, but Aang jumped in before a heated argument could take place.

"I'll take care of it, sir," he said. "I'll take responsibility for my friend's actions."

Meng snorted, and Aang shot a tense look at her.

"Before you take responsibility for _his_ actions," Meng said, nodding in Sokka's direction, "you should first take responsibility for your own."

"Meng, not here," Aang said in a low voice, pain etched across his face.

Just then a servant entered the dining room and cleared away the other table setting, then came back and whispered something in Lord Bei Fong's ear.

"Fine. Send for a doctor if she worsens," the lord replied and dismissed him.

"Dad, what's going on?" Toph asked worriedly.

"Your friend the Water Tribe girl came back late last night seeking shelter after walking about in the rain for some hours. We provided her a room where she's sleeping now, but it seems she's developed a slight fever and will not be joining us for breakfast."

"Sir, where is she?" Aang asked, jumping to his feet.

"She is in no danger," Lord Bei Fong replied evenly. "You may sit and enjoy your meal while she rests."

"But, sir—"

"Sit down, Aang," Meng snapped.

_I won't have you run out of the room on me again for her_, she thought bitterly.

Though still concerned for Katara's wellbeing, Aang listened to the unspoken plea he understood Meng to be making and for her sake sat back down.

"So, Toph dear," Lady Bei Fong began cheerily in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Did you meet any young men you liked last night? Did you dance with anyone?"

Toph blinked. "I met lots of young men," she said.

"Yes, but did you _like _any of them?" her mother repeated curiously.

"No, I didn't. None of them."

"Toph!" her mother exclaimed. "You'll have to try a little harder than that if you want to find a husband!"

"But I don't want to get married right now, Mom," Toph explained angrily. "I'm happy being single and Earthbending and meeting people at bars and clubs and stuff."

"But, dear, are you really happy? You seem so down when we see you," her mother declared.

"Well, yeah, I'm not saying I don't have any problems to weigh me down, but getting married isn't going to solve any of them," Toph argued. "The only problems it would solve would be yours." She directed this at both her father and mother.

"Our problems _are_ your problems, Toph," Lord Bei Fong interjected. "When you are married, we can all be at peace."

Clenching her fists in her lap, Toph bit her lip and offered nothing further.

"I will arrange for you to see a matchmaker," her father continued. "Perhaps with such help we can find someone suitable to our tastes whom you like as well; and if we all work very hard on this together, we may very well hold a wedding reception here this same time next year, if not sooner."

Toph's angry silence continued. Sokka scowled at his host.

"Toph, stand up for yourself!" Stonehenge said suddenly. "You're the toughest Earthbender out there—you can't let them treat you like this!"

"Stay out of it," Toph said darkly.

"No, this is ridiculous. I've seen you take on some of the strongest fighters out there, and you're just rolling over to your parents? They don't ever care about y—"

With a swift slide of her foot, Toph jarred his chair forward, sending him face-first into his plate of food.

"What the hell?" he sputtered, eggs and bacon and bread crumbs slathered across his face.

"Stop acting like you know me," she snapped, then shoved her chair back, stood, and left the table and the dining room altogether.

Upset by her daughter's departure, Lady Bei Fong broke into sobs, and Lord Bei Fong reached over and patted her hand with his.

"There, there," he said. "Once we find her a husband, all of these mood swings and Earthbending tendencies will be ironed out."

"You don't get it!" Stonehenge cried, suddenly upset and beyond his usual control. "You've got a beautiful, talented daughter with the strength to overturn _anyone_ inside or outside the ring, and you're trying to make her be something she's not. How is all her success not good enough for you?"

"Silence, young man," Lord Bei Fong warned with a deadly glare.

"You're horrible parents," Stonehenge persisted, standing to his feet and readying to leave the room. "You don't deserve her."

"Hey, Pixieshit," Sokka said, also rising and bounding over to the Earthbender.

"What do you want?" Stonehenge asked, pausing and turning to face Sokka.

"Nothing. I just wanted to say…"

And he delivered a swift right hook to the side of Stonehenge's head.

Stonehenge dropped to his knees and fell forward, barely catching himself from falling face-first onto the floor.

"Didn't see that one coming, did you?" Sokka said coldly, rubbing his fist and wincing.

"Thanks for breakfast. Really hit the spot," he called over his shoulder to his host and hostess.

And with that he hurried out after Toph.

--

To be continued…

--

--

A/N:

Aw, Stonehenge got hurt. /sad/

But Sokka kicked butt! /happy!/

I'll warn you all now that you can be expecting two major reconciliations in the next chapter! /wink/ And maybe a surprise romance will pop up randomly, though not between the two you might guess. Heeee

Thank you so much for reading, and reviews are so very welcomed and looked forward to! /grin/

--

P.S.

I do not own Avatar or any of the characters therein. I do own Stonehenge and his messy breakfast face, though. Heh heh


	21. Starting Over

Chapter Twenty-One

--

Starting Over

--

--

Sokka ran (read: stumped as quickly as possible) through the many halls of the Bei Fong residence, checking room after room, searching for Toph, but finding her nowhere.

"This is ridiculous!" he cried to himself in the massive emptiness of a cellar-type room with naught but bottled wines and cheeses and the like. "Who _needs_ this much space?"

He helped himself to a hunk of cheese, though, and munched on it as he ran off again.

--

--

"Katara?" Aang said tentatively, just as tentatively knocking on the door.

He waited a moment, but no response came. Steeling himself for the worst, he prepared to enter the room.

"So you're really doing this," came a voice behind him.

Aang dropped the doorknob and turned around to see Meng watching him intently. He swallowed audibly.

"Meng, I care about you, I really do. But…"

"But you care about her more," she finished for him.

He met her gaze and held it; he nodded.

She looked away from him. "But did you ever…" she started, clenching her fists and willing herself to continue. "Did you ever really think…seriously…for…that you wanted to be with me?"

She bit her lip to keep it from quivering so violently with the self-horror of her current vulnerability.

Aang reached out to her and brushed aside an unruly lock of her already unruly hair. His hand paused briefly at her cheek, cradling it affectionately, and they stared wordlessly at one another, neither able to find the right words—or any words for that matter—to express what he or she felt at that moment.

Then Aang said, "I think I could have been very happy with you, Meng."

Meng hiccupped a sob, and before he could draw his hand away, she took it in hers and kept it at her cheek. Crying against it and unable to speak, she nodded into it to show him she understood.

"I'm so sorry, Meng," he whispered chokingly, equally torn up to see her like this. "I never meant to hurt you."

He hated himself as soon as he said those five words, the five words he'd been battling with for the past months, the five words it made him sick to hear coming from his mouth.

Meng continued crying and nodding into his hand, though, and it broke his heart to feel so acutely from her the same sorrow Katara had bestowed upon him when they had had to break up.

"_But I really don't mean to. I never meant to,_" he insisted to himself, trying to wrap his head around how this could have ever happened when he'd never had any intention of breaking someone else's heart as his had been broken.

"I'm sorry," he said again, both to her and to himself.

"_I want to fix it, but I can't," _he realized, and he suddenly wanted to wrench his hand away from her and out of her grasp, as if losing all physical contact with her would separate him from her pain.

But he knew it wouldn't.

Because her pain was his pain.

And for a long time he let her cry into his hand for both their broken hearts.

Because he didn't have the right to cry anymore.

--

--

Sokka was searching nooks and crannies now and any other such places Toph could inexplicably be.

He blasted into the library and checked under all the tables and chairs. He dashed through the kitchens and opened all barrels and sacks large enough to contain a tiny Toph, but just to be thorough, he inspected the cabinets as well. He investigated closets and looked under beds, threw aside tapestries and peaked inside ornate statues of ancient warrior's armor. Finally, he found a body.

Rather, he found two bodies.

Lying behind a couch.

Passed out.

Wearing a minimal amount of clothing.

And they were both guys.

"Woah!" shouted Sokka, stumbling backward and knocking into a table with a flower-filled vase upon it. The vase fell and shattered, and the noise awoke the two young men.

"Sokka, what are you doing here?" asked one groggily as the other rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Sokka returned to him, gesturing to the pair of them.

"Enjoying the party," the man replied with a suggestively suave grin.

"Haru," Sokka said wearily, "the party ended hours ago. It's daylight, and you're still here with…uh…this guy."

"Sora," Haru answered, introducing the shy Firebender, who waved meekly through his sleeve as he put on his shirt.

"And if that's the case," Haru continued, referencing the daylight circumstances, "then I think we should probably leave before we're caught by anyone else."

Sora nodded mutely and gathered up their things.

"What's the quickest way out?" Haru asked, zipping up his pants.

Sokka averted his eyes and his thoughts, replying, "Uh, out through the patio off the banquet hall, but they're still cleaning up in there, so you should probably try going out the window in this hallway and running through the gardens—"

"_Wait! The gardens!_" he realized. "_I haven't looked there!_"

"I'll take you," he said to Haru and Sora. "I'll help you get out of here."

"Thanks!" they said in unison (this also the first word Sora had uttered).

"But first we need to take care of this," Sokka muttered, shoving the vase and flowers under the couch with his cast foot.

"Stupid vases always getting in my way," he grumbled audibly.

Haru and Sora headed for the door.

"And another thing," Sokka said. "Haru?"

"Yes?" the man in question replied.

"You might want to put on a shirt."

--

--

After Meng left, still in tears, Aang slumped to the floor outside Katara's room, waiting as he pulled himself back together so he could face her completely. This took him quite some time, but when he finally stood to his feet, he knew he was ready.

This time he did not knock on the door or call to her; he simply turned the knob, pushed open the door and stood there on the threshold, waiting for her to react.

But she didn't react. Her eyes were already on him, knowing he would be there. She was reclined in the bed, propped up by pillows, her head turned to watch him as he entered. She had been waiting for him.

Neither of them spoke for a moment.

Then…

"How's your fever?"

"Better."

"You scared us…me."

"I'm sorry."

"But you came back."

"I had nowhere else to go."

"Oh…"

"Aang," she said gently. "You can come in."

He had been hesitating at the threshold, but with her permission he now crossed it and the entire room to kneel beside her bed and bury his face in her hand closest to him.

"It's not like I'm dying," she said laughing, but not pulling her hand away.

"I know," he said. "But you've been gone a long time, Katara. You know, from us." He finished the last part in a mumble, uncertain how she would take it.

She reached over and placed her other hand on his head, tracing his arrow faintly with the tips of her fingers. His shoulders shivered from the sensation, and the back of his neck tingled with the buzz of his familiar desire for her.

"I know. I'm sorry," she murmured.

"I'm sorry, too."

Their apologies hung in the air.

"Can we start over?" he asked.

"Can we?"

"Can you?"

Katara hesitated.

"What about you?" she asked again.

"Meng and I aren't—" he began.

"I know," she said, tipping her head to the door. "I could hear."

Aang flushed, a mixture of shame and angry for Meng's sake.

Katara shrank back slightly, worried she had touched a nerve that did not belong to her. She tried to fix it. "What I mean is, do you think you're ready, Aang? It sounded like…and last night it looked like…you two really liked each other…and I don't want you to feel forced to—"

Aang gripped her hand tightly and looked fiercely into her eyes.

"I would never feel forced to be with you, Katara," he swore.

She blushed from his intensity. "Still…maybe we should wait," she said.

"But not—she said, cutting off his objections—for my sake."

She pulled her hand from his grasp so she could take his face in both her hands and calm his lips with the stroke of a thumb.

"For yours. We'll…or I…I'm going to wait for you this time, Aang. For when _you're_ ready."

He nodded against her hands, then leaned forward and hugged her, reclaiming his dearest friend in the world.

--

--

Sokka, Haru, and Sora darted across the grass and through bushes until they reached the thick wall of stone forming the perimeter of the Be Fong estate.

"Okay, now you guys just Earthbend a way under and—"

Haru landed a well-placed kick on the wall, and the stones swept to the sides to create an opening.

"Or through. Whatever," Sokka grumbled, rolling his eyes. "Just go on, already, you crazy gay lovebirds."

Haru winked at Sokka as he passed through, and Sora bowed awkwardly as he ran after his new friend, who in his opinion was now decidedly sexier than the Avatar.

"That was just way too weird," Sokka shuddered to himself as Haru Bended the wall shut. "But I've gotta find Toph."

--

--

Meanwhile, Stonehenge found her first.

She was sitting outside under her favorite tree, a large mimosa in bloom; and even though the ground was still wet from the rain the night before and had thoroughly soiled the skirt of her dress with muddy earth—even so—under the tree's pink flowers she looked more delicate and tame than he had ever seen her.

And he hated it at that moment.

"Toph," he said when he had come to a stop before her. "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what, Pixieshit?" she spat, glaring.

He glared, too. "Letting your parents walk on you and tell you what to do. I thought you were stronger than that—no, I know you are—so why are you just rolling over to those snobs who share nothing with you but a name?"

"Because _those snobs_," she growled through gritted teeth, "are my _family_. For better or for worse. And they love me as much as they know how."

"You call it love? Trying to marry you off, so they don't have to take care of you anymore? Refusing to see that you can take care of yourself? What kind of love is that?" Stonehenge argued furiously.

"_Look!_" Toph shouted, enraged and jumping to her feet to shove him in the chest as she continued to shout at him. "Whoever made you the Family Love Police? Whoever made you Professional Ultimate Critic of my life? _No one!_ You're just some guy who showed up and started acting like you know exactly how I think and how I feel, but you _don't_. You're just some sorry ass _kid_ coming from a bad home life thinking I'm just like you and some kind of answer to all your problems or something, but guess what?"

She jabbed him hard just below his collarbone, making him stagger slightly.

"You think I made you into the so-called 'man' you are today, but I didn't. You did it all on your own."

She was shorter than he, and completely blind, but anyone would swear she was staring him down throughout this heated speech.

"You think you need me, but you don't. You think you love me, but you don't. You have _no idea_ what it means to really love someone. You're just in love with some _idea_ of me that you cooked up to suit your needs. But outside your imagination and outside the ring, you have _no_ connection to me, _whatsoever_."

Stonehenge's glare wavered, and he shook with anger.

"None of that is true," he snarled. "I _do_ love you, Toph. Just because I don't treat you like shit like that _loser_ does—"

"If you say another word about him, I swear to the gods you'll regret it," she hissed dangerously.

Stonehenge continued on anyway. "Has he ever told you he cares about you? Has he ever made you feel like you're the only girl that matters? Judging by your death glare, I'd say not. And what if he never comes around, huh? What if you just pine away for him all your life because he'll never get it and never do anything about it_? _What if you waste your life away waiting on some asshole when there's someone right in front of you who loves you more than anything else in the world?"

"Then I'd say, 'Get the hell out of my spot!' " Sokka shouted as he ran up and tackled Stonehenge to the ground.

"You pathetic piece of—!"

"Shut up already and eat dirt!" Sokka yelled and shoved a fistful of loose wet soil into Stonehenge's open mouth.

Glaring viciously at him, Stonehenge seemed strangely victorious with the dirt in his mouth; but it became clear why as he spat a wad of dirt out of his mouth that zoomed like a bullet over Sokka's shoulder, missing him by inches.

"Woah!" Sokka shouted, realizing the potentially lethal (or at least very, very painful) mistake he had made. He quickly shoved Stonehenge's face sideways into the mud, and struggled against the Earthbender's mightier strength as his brick-like fists came up to grab Sokka's arms and twist them painfully.

Sokka cried out, but doggedly held down the Earthbender's face, refusing to release him.

"Sokka, let go of him now!" Toph shouted.

"_Huh?_"

Sokka started to object, but glanced over at her and her threateningly raised foot.

"_Do it!_" she snarled.

"Okay!" he cried and flung himself backward, wrenching free of Stonehenge's grip.

Toph slammed her foot down with an audible squishy stomp that the entire grounds would have heard if not for the punch of earth exploding up from beneath Stonehenge, sending him flying off across the gardens and over the wall to land in a tree outside the Bei Fong property.

"_Yes!_" wooped Sokka. "You should have done that _ages_ ago!"

"I only did it because he was going to kick your ass," Toph retorted, jerking away from his hand on her shoulder and turning her back.

"No way! I could have totally held my own!" Sokka protested.

"Yeah, right," Toph muttered.

"No, seriously! I totally brought that jerk to his _knees_ when I decked him in front of your parents! You should have seen it!" he cried, jumping in front of her excitedly, trying to break through her angry exterior.

"Should have, but didn't, and couldn't have anyway even if I had been there," she said, turning away from him again.

"Come on, Toph, you know what I mean," he said anxiously, leaning around her now, losing her each time he tried to put his hands on her shoulders, her back, her arm. "It was great. Really. I gave him a sweet right hook to the side of the head, and then I was like, 'I bet you didn't see that one coming. Ha ha ha.' and then I thanked your parents for breakfast, and then I left, and it was…it was amazing…c'mon, Toph…"

"Let me get this straight," she said, stepping three paces back from him and holding her hands up to keep him away. "You took advantage of a fifteen-year-old kid's blindness in what I'm guessing is his left eye since you punched him with your right fist, then you laughed in his face about it, then you tried to look all bad ass in front of my parents for beating the guy up, and then you_ ran away before he could get up and beat the shit out of you_."

What little ego and enthusiasm Sokka had left instantly deflated.

"Well, when you put it like _that_, it doesn't sound so amazing…" he murmured.

"No, it doesn't," Toph said.

But a small smile tugged at her lips. "It is pretty funny, though," she admitted, a small laugh escaping.

Sokka felt hope again. "Toph, I—"

"Stop it," she said. "Just stop." She wasn't smiling anymore. Somehow her smile had flipped and her laughter turned to tears, all in the span of a second it seemed.

"_She's so hard to read sometimes_," Sokka thought, sadly, watching his best friend breaking down in front of him for a reason he couldn't quite grasp yet.

"Toph, tell me what's wrong," he pleaded. "I can't read your mind—you have to tell me." He stepped toward her again, but she violently shook her head, biting her lip.

"What's wrong?" she choked out when she could finally overcome her burgeoning sobs long enough to speak. "What's wrong…is that…Stonehenge…he was partly…right…He…about _you_." She slapped her hands to her face and wheeled around, not knowing what she looked like at that moment, but knowing just the same that she didn't want him to see her that way.

Sokka was deeply confused and deeply irritated by these words. "Stonehenge knows as little about me as he knows about you, Toph. He doesn't know anything about us, and even if he did, we're—" he started, balling his hands into fists in his frustration.

"What 'us'?!" Toph all but shrieked. "What 'we' are you talking about? We're just friends, and that's all we've ever been!" A series of hiccups interrupted her, and she stomped her foot so angrily that the mimosa tree shook. "All we'll…ever…be!" she forced out.

Sokka crossed the space between them before she could object. His arms were around her before she could say anything. His mouth was somewhere next to her ear—the far upper part of her cheek, maybe—before she could even breathe.

"Do you really think that?" he asked, his voice just above a whisper, sending shivers down her spine. "Are we never going to be anything but friends?"

"Why are you asking me?" she asked, telling herself to pull away but ignoring her own advice.

Sokka chuckled bitterly. "Because it seems like you have all the say with what happens here, and I'm just praying you don't beat the crap out of me."

"_I _have all the say?" she cried, angry and astonished and shoving herself away from him. "What makes you think I have _any_ say with _anything_ having to do with you?"

"Because of this!" Sokka shouted, pointing between the two of them, indicating the distance there. "Because every time I try to get closer to you, you either back away or hurt me!"

"And why do you think that is?!" Toph yelled, fresh tears springing to her eyes, though they were now unflinching, her glare in place. "You think _you're_ the one who always gets hurt? You're not, Sokka! So you've been left a few times. _Big deal!_ At least you had something with someone you cared about—at least you were in the game. But do you know what it's like to be the one on the sidelines, watching your favorite player having his heart torn to shreds on the field, but you can't do anything about it, and he never once turns to you and wants you for his team? Do you know _that_ kind of pain?" She shook her heard fiercely. "Do you even get what I'm saying?" she murmured sadly.

Sokka was quiet, trying to wrap his thoughts around her metaphor, trying to see things her way. "Toph…do you like me?" he asked.

She barked a laugh, incredulous of his question. "Isn't it obvious?" she said, finally giving in and putting her feelings to some form of words.

Sokka silently shook his head, a small smile of understanding beginning to tug at the corners of his mouth. But he still had more questions. "And you've liked me since…"

"Since before Suki," Toph spat. "Or at least before _I_ met her."

He did not expect this answer. "Since then? You mean all that time you—"

"No more questions," she said harshly. "We've stroked your ego enough."

"This isn't about my ego, Toph!" Sokka snarled back. "This is about you, and me trying to figure out how you feel."

"Why does it matter what I feel, Sokka, when you haven't said anything about how you feel?!" she shouted. "You act like I should be doing and saying all these things and making all these moves, but what have _you_ done? You ask me if I like you, but you've never told me _anything_. You don't know what it's like to be in the dark like that, always wondering if you would ever like me because _you never said it!_"

He unexpectedly grabbed her wrist when she wasn't paying attention, tugging it away from her side and pulling it to his lips. His breath tickled her knuckles. "I didn't know I had to, Toph," he said, placing a kiss on the bone-white skin.

When was the last time she had felt his lips on her? Had it been months now? It seemed too long, and his touch was aggravatingly unfamiliar in its familiarity, or aggravatingly familiar in its unfamiliarity—she wasn't sure which way it was. Her thoughts had temporarily lost their ability to connect.

Her fist unclenched of its own accord, and all her attention focused on the sensation traveling up her arm and into her body as his lips touched her palm.

"Do I like you, Toph?" he murmured, next kissing the delicate, relaxed veins at her wrist. "Is that _your _question?"

She nodded, a bright blush spreading across her cheeks. "Yes," she said quietly.

He suddenly pulled her to him, and keeping her hand in his, he leaned down to press his forehead against hers. "I thought it was obvious," he said, a hint of playfulness in his voice.

But there was nothing playful in his kiss. Toph's eyes snapped open, unsure how to respond, hesitating to move, scared she would do something wrong. Sokka knew her well enough in this way, though, to guide her through the motions and spark a response from her with his gentle yet urgent affections.

Both were quiet when they finally broke apart. Sokka found that place somewhere near her ear again, and Toph had the peace of mind to take note of and appreciate the feeling of his thick jaw against her softer one. They stood together embraced for a while before Toph breathed a silent giggle through her nostrils, blowing across the bottom of Sokka's ear and tickling it.

"What?" he asked, pulling away from her just enough to look into her face to gauge what was going on inside her head.

"Nothing," she said quickly. "It's just…"

"What?" he asked again, a little annoyed and anxious.

"It's just that you were so cool just then," she murmured happily. "Pulling me into your arms and repeating my 'isn't it obvious' line."

"Yeah, well, I guess I have my cool moments," he said indignantly with a tinge of sarcasm. "You know, every once in a while." A rather heavier amount of sarcasm.

"No," Toph said, reaching for his face and pulling it back down to her level to touch her laughing lips to his. "I loved it."

"I love you, too," he said.

Toph's giggle ceased, and Sokka's cheeks glowed brightly as he realized his error.

"Oh," he said. "You said 'it'. I thought you…uh…said something else."

"You thought I said 'you'." she said, a statement, not a question.

He nodded, and mumbled something that sounded like "kind of."

"Well, Snoozles…" she murmured with a grin, dragging it out so he would squirm a bit. "Why don't we pretend I did?"

Sokka was very much in favor of this, and showed his enthusiasm by wrapping his arms around her and kissing her again.

--

--

About an hour and several rounds of making out later, Sokka and Toph were curled up together beneath the mimosa tree, which was now slightly tilted in a new direction after Toph's earlier fit.

"I wish," Sokka began, drawing little circles on Toph's open palm, "that I could have been your first kiss, Toph."

"You were my first kiss, you moron," she said.

"What? No, I wasn't. Last night Stonehenge ki—"

Toph reached up and pinched his nose.

"Ow! Towfu, le' go!" he managed to say despite his blocked nasal passages, backing up to the tree, trying to squirm his way out of her grip.

"You were my first kiss," she repeated.

"Wha?" he asked. "Wha do you bean?"

Toph released his nose.

"Nothing," she said. "You don't remember anyway."

She let go of him nose to grab his shirt, yanking him closer to kiss him somewhere next to his ear.

"Does that part of the face have a name?" he asked, leaning into and savoring the feel of her lips on his skin, wrapping his arms around her and drawing her closer, her muddy self to his equally muddy self.

"I dunno. Why?" she breathed into his ear, her arms around him now, her hands pressed against his back, feeling the quickening pulse of his heart as she pressed herself closer and closer to him.

"It just…deserves one is all."

"It kind of does," she agreed, and welcomed his lips with her own.

--

--

Later he spoke up again. "What did you mean when you said I was your first kiss, Toph?"

"Sokka, you do _not_ want to get into the million and one reasons why I've been mad at you the past months, okay?"

"Okay…Can Snoozles have a cuddle?"

"Yes, Snoozles can have a cuddle."

"A million and one cuddles?"

"Stop the babytalk, and I'll cuddle you for life, big boy."

"Now that's what I'm talking about!"

"You are _such_ a goob…"

--

Until the Epilogue…

--

--

A/N:

Edit:

I admit I felt rather rushed to write this last chapter when I originally wrote and uploaded it. I was scared I would leave all of you hanging because after an entire semester at college, I wasn't sure I would be interested in picking the story back up and finishing it. So anyway, I finished it then and was ecstatic to have done so, though I wasn't as pleased with the final chapter as I wished to be. So I've been keeping the fanfic in the back of my head for months, waiting for the end of the term and for the start of winter break to come so I could do the ending justice. And post the epilogue I've been talking about, which I wrote but with which I was also not entirely pleased. I'll get on that, though, and it will be a Christmas present of sorts to any and all who have read or will read my story because I appreciate everyone who checks it out and gives it a chance.

Really, thank you to everyone who has read my fic before now. I kept your warm and constructive comments close these past few months, and I hope you enjoy the revisions I have made. Peace.

End Edit.

Original A/N follows…

And voila! The story is _almost_ complete! I still have some loose-ish ends to wrap up, mainly giving certain characters a bit of a happier ending //cough// Meng and Stonehenge //cough//. I know many of you haven't really liked Stonehenge very much at all, but I grew fond of him over the second two-thirds of the story (basically since I introduced him), and he might have been a big baby and thrown a huge tantrum in this final-ish chapter, but he's a hormonal guy in love. And he's in love with Toph, which is pretty ballsy. haha For the purposes of his character and the climactic finale, he became straight-up horrible for this chapter, but really, I think he's a good guy with plenty of potential at heart. Toph's right that he doesn't have a good grasp on what love is, but he'll figure it out one day, and he'll be happier for it. Because Stonehenge is a tough guy, but I don't think I'd call him altogether happy. He's a fun character I ended up creating, though, and I wish him the best, even though he might not get it in the epilogue. Hm.

As for the other characters, _Aaaws_ all around to the Gaang! Katara and Aang didn't have a big kissy kiss scene, but that's because they've had many years of kissy kiss together, and I felt it would deepen their reconciliation to have a simple quiet one in which they work out their issues and come to terms in a gentle fashion.

Toph and Sokka? Not so much on the gentle. They were having fun and basically up to shenanigans, though emotionally charged shenanigans they were! Another reason Katara and Aang didn't make out when they made up was because I didn't want to have two huge kiss scenes. I just felt they would end up taking away from each other, and I had to give the kiss to Toph and Sokka because they deserve one, damn it! It's been a twenty-one chapter (plus one epilogue to come) Tokka fanfic, and by God, they were going to kiss, or I was going to shoot myself in the foot! And then you all might have shot me in the foot, too, so to keep my feet intact and my soles whole, Tokka got the make out scene, and it was delightfully fun and romantical! I think so, anyway. //grin//

Okay, I could gush on and on about this massive work I managed to churn out in just over a couple of weeks (while juggling another fanfic for a week along with this, mind you), even when I originally planned for this to be, like, nine chapters _tops_ or something, but this is long enough already, and I need to take a break and listen to some tunes or something.

Thank you all so much for reading. Your reviews have meant the world to me, and your enthusiasm for and enjoyment of the story kept me going strong throughout. I'm so glad I wrote this, and I'm so glad I could share it with all of you readers.

I'm assuming that if you're reading this, you're a Tokka fan; so without fear of insulting fans of another ship, I proudly rejoice: TOKKA FOREVER!!!!

--

P.S.

I didn't give birth to the world of Avatar, but by God, I gave birth to this fanfic.

And I'm proud of it, too! //wink//


	22. Epilogue: Making New Habits

Epilogue

--

Making New Habits

--

--

Toph wasted no time beating around the bush with her parents; she told them that she and Sokka were together, and that she would not tolerate any of their attempts to change that. Despite this restriction Lord Bei Fong still strongly objected the match, but Toph felt slightly comforted that her mother said and did nothing that suggested she agreed with her husband, which was as good a sign as any that things might work out with her parents someday.

Sokka took off as much time from work as he could in order to stay with Toph and spend more time with her. Using the excuse that his leg needed more time to heal, he managed to pull off the scheme for a while, but at some point several days after the removal of his cast, he ran into one of his co-workers on vacation in the Earth Kingdom, and then the jig was up. Grumbling, he returned to the Northern Water Tribe, his job, and—much to Toph's joy—his own apartment. She loved the guy, sure, but her sense of independence retaliated against even the notion of a live-in boyfriend, and the reality of it drove her nearly mad.

"Babe, I love you, but you gotta go," she had to tell him matter-of-factly, and basically sent him packing.

Despite herself, she missed him terribly over the days following his departure and took off to visit him, but found his apartment in complete disarray, and concerning a number of left-over/out food items, varying states of decay. Repulsed beyond all measure, she turned right around to leave for Katara's, Sokka shouting after her that he loved her and please not to go and that the filth he was living in was all a product of how much he missed and loved her, so all the trash and the bad/funny smells and growing fungi actually embodied his love for her.

She shouted at him that that was not at all romantic, and left anyway.

This squabble became their first fight, and it quickly snowballed when Toph refused to even visit him at his home if he didn't clean up. Sokka took great offense to this and claimed that he had the right to live however he wished within the privacy of his own home, and if she wished to see him, then she'd know where to find him. She returned that 'yes, she'd just have to track down the source of the plague, though she could probably smell the place out first. _Or_ just follow the legions of cockroaches immigrating to a Brave New World.' Sokka's infuriated reply to this line of insults hit such a high note that this authoress is not entirely sure herself what he said.

Katara wisely stayed out of the new couple's row, and in a matter of days, Toph couldn't stand it anymore and ran over to his place, apologizing and telling him she loved him for better or for worse, for clean or for putrid/deadly/disgusting/plaguetastic/etc. When she calmed down though, she realized his apartment neither smelled nor decomposed nor twitched with the life of immigrant insects, and the making up make out session which followed became one of the most ridiculous yet sweetest memories of all the memories they knew they would make together for the rest of their lives.

For both were confident, even in their worst moments, that they would last through anything because the good they had together always outweighed the bad, even through the issues with her parents—mainly her father—even through their arguments about which of them got to propose to the other, and even through what they called The Return of Stonehenge.

Stonehenge approached Toph some months later, wanting to talk. Toph was going to refuse to listen to him, but something about him gave her reason to pause. He told her that she had been mistaken, he really had loved her, and he still did. He wanted her to know that whether she was with someone else or wishing to be with someone else, he would bide his time and wait for her, whatever it took.

Toph had no reply for this. She wasn't even mad at him. She didn't realize it immediately, but she felt rather sorry for him, for how she'd treated him and for what she'd said to him because how was he any different from how she had been? Even in the face of Sokka's love for Suki years ago, Toph still held on to a faint glimmer of hope, and even when he fell into an intense and long-lasting funk over their break up, she had still dared imagine a day would come when he'd finally notice her as more than a friend. Her perseverance had been rewarded, and she felt assured that she and Sokka would never lose each other; so what did that make Stonehenge and his resolution to wait for her?

"He's what I could have been," she came to realize.

And seeing things this way, she found him the tiniest bit less infuriating.

So to be as direct and as reasonable as possible, she told him that she had no intention of ever leaving Sokka, that she was happy with him and that he, Stonehenge, would just have to deal with that. She conveyed this state of affairs to him rather gently, and he accepted it, not expecting her to say anything else.

"I just wanted to let you know," he told her, and that was the last she heard from him for a long time.

She often heard _about_ him, however, as he continued to travel around and compete in and win various Earthbending tournaments and championships.

Aunt Wu had told Meng she would find her destiny in the Fire Nation, but Meng wanted to forget about destiny for a while, since it had not been kind to her too recently. If she had cared to look a little closer, she might have seen that her time in the Fire Nation had changed her and set her on a new and promising life path, albeit one that began from a doomed love and a broken heart. It was the beginning of this path, however, that led her to the person with whom she would walk the rest of the way. Thus, while Stonehenge put all his heart into his battles, Meng traveled with him, supporting him in any way she could, though she always refused to pick his dirty underwear up for him.

As the months continued to pass, Mazane's belly continued to swell, as did her and Hakoda's happiness, until finally their healthy baby boy arrived and made their world one step closer to a realistic paradise. Toph and Sokka and Katara and Aang went to welcome the new baby, friend and family member into the world and found him a very calm, peaceful, laid back, and carefree personality. Hakoda asked Sokka to name his younger brother, and Sokka eagerly took on the task. However, even after repeatedly holding his brother to the left and shouting "Iroh!" then swinging him to the right and shouting "Boomy!" he still found himself unable to decide between the two names; so he passed the decision on to Toph. Unfortunately, at the very moment of baby transaction, Sokka's little brother's dizziness caught up with him and he wretched all over his older brother.

"I kind of like the name Ralph," Toph laughed as Sokka cried out in disgust. Neither Hakoda nor Mazane liked this name (they weren't fond of Boomy either), but the name Iroh agreed with them and inspired them to name their son Kiroh.

Katara had always been something of a motherly figure to her friends, but they had never seen her more motherly than she was with her new little brother. Toph and Sokka acknowledged it as cute, but left it at that since they had, as they usually did, some serious making out to do. Aang, however, couldn't help but watch the Waterbender and her baby sibling. Seeing her caring for a new life fascinated him, and drove him to a certain degree of sudden passionate madness.

"Marry me, Katara," he said as she cooed to baby Kiroh.

She abruptly stopped cooing at this abrupt proposal.

"Aang, what are you talking about? We're still not even together," she protested.

"Does that matter? We both know that we love each other, right? I don't think a little thing like us not dating should change that."

Katara scoffed at his temporary loss of rationality, but kissed him on the cheek to placate his objections to the former. Once his ability to reason returned, he surprised her again by asking a second time. On this occasion he supplied many good reasons supporting why they should marry, and with a happy nod and "Oh, yes, Aang!" from her, he quite literally swept her off her feet, called her his Forever Girl, and that was that.

Toph and Sokka's engagement came a year later, and both have different stories as to how it took place; Toph claims she proposed, but Sokka just as adamantly alleges that it was he. It does not matter, though, who asked whom, for in the end it happened, and when they married, it was with as much happiness as either of them could have ever hoped for. Lord Bei Fong grudgingly attended the wedding and unenthusiastically bestowed his blessings upon them while Lady Bei Fong smiled and wiped away genuine tears of joy for her daughter and her groom. Before the ceremony she whispered to Toph that her father would eventually come around and that he most certainly loved her very much and wanted the best for her. Thinking about her parents' marriage turned Toph's feet cold, and waves of doubt suddenly crashed over her, making her question if she was really ready for this step, and if they could do the whole marriage thing without turning into her parents.

Again putting her maternal instincts to good use, Katara stepped in and offered Toph the reassurance her own mother could not.

"Toph, I can't tell you whether you're ready or not—that's something only you know—but I can tell you that my brother is 100 percent prepared to commit himself to you today. He has been ever since he figured out how he really feels about you," the maid of honor said truthfully. "And would it be so bad if your marriage became like your parents' marriage? Your parents are still together, Toph, and they're happy. Their marriage works for them, and that's a wonderful thing. Now you have to make a marriage that works for you and Sokka. You're already off to a great start—I've never seen either of you this happy. You two can't see it, but you both practically glow when you're together. And that's not something to take lightly."

The pep talk had its intended effect, subduing Toph's anxiety for the time being, just long enough for her to enter the arena on her father's arm as he guided her up and into the ring. She and Sokka had joked that marriage was a battlefield of sorts, and so they decided to hold their wedding ceremony in the Earthbending stadium and invited everyone they knew and also any curious spectators willing to pay an entrance fee.

"After all," Sokka had reasoned, "someone's gotta help pay for that open bar both our dads were too cheap to buy for us."

Because Toph was wearing shoes for the special day, her father led her to the designated spot where he stopped, kissed his daughter rather sadly, and left her to take his seat beside his wife. On either side of Toph was a line of four kneeling Earthbenders in formal dress. As the music cued, they began a synchronized dance, and on every fourth beat, they stamped a foot, and a stone step surged up from the ground in front of Toph. She took the step in her healed shoes and waited the brief interval before the next step appeared for her to take. She could only slightly feel the vibrations through the shoes, and aside from the sound of the stomping, she was detached from those around her: her parents, Hakoda, Mazane, Kiroh, Zuko, Iroh, Haru, Sora and all her other friends, along with all the random people there to watch the eccentric wedding ceremony.

As the steps continued and Toph climbed higher, she could hear less and less of the stomping. As the height of each step increased, she felt fewer and fewer vibrations, and it was as if she were completely alone, and as the steps went on and on, it was as if she would always be alone. _Would anyone really be waiting for her there at the end?_ she began to wonder.

The music finally cut off, and Toph realized she had made it to the top where the the Earthbenders' steps met up with a smaller stage atop a pillar where she could vaguely make out the presence of four people: the marriage official, her maid of honor Katara, the best man Aang—and Sokka. Her Sokka. As soon as she felt him near, she knew this was where she was meant to be, and she confidently strode forward straight for him, even though she couldn't see him or feel his exact location. Still, she knew where he was, and when she was right in front of him, she grabbed his tie and pulled him down to kiss her full on the lips, much to the enjoyment of the entire arena.

"Toph!" he grumbled, rather self-consciously. "We're not to that part yet."

"I don't give a damn," Toph said, shrugging it off. "I just wanted to show you how happy I am that you're here."

"Well," Sokka said, grinning cockily, "you can show me whatever you want to later tonight, but right now, we've gotta do this part, right?"

"Ready when you are then," she said, also grinning.

"Hey, preach," she said as they both turned to face the marriage official, hand in hand and smiling broadly. "You think you could double-time this thing? We've kind of got someplace to be."

And with that (and a few other ceremonial bits) they were married.

And, of course, they didn't live happily ever after all the time, but, as they liked to say, they gave all the fairytales a run for their money.

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Fin.

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A/N:

And that was that, four months after the posting of the final chapter. I hope it was worth the wait, and even if it weren't worth the wait, I hope it was enjoyable just the same. I tried to make the Epilogue in a style different from other epilogues, so we'll see together how it goes. Hopefully it was an entertaining read and a pleasant conclusion to wrap up the loose ends.

Here's wishing everyone the best for the holidays and whatever festivities you and yours celebrate. I appreciate your reading this, and I hope to hear back from you.

Best Wishes,

Amaniachwen

P.S.

If anyone has any suggestions for spoof bits for the story, let me know, and I will gladly write them and post them. ; )


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